My impossible task
by AngelArweniel
Summary: I have always thought that my life was bad before. Now that I think about it it was actually still better than this. Minerva I sincerely hope that you are laughing your ass off up there. My first story! Contains OCs and insanity! But only a little.
1. Just a normal day-NOT

**I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or anything from it, only my OCs and few other things. Well I hope you will enjoy this story since I have never ever published my work before :3**

 **Also, let me tell you first that this chapter is something like an introduction to the main character so if you find this boring skip to chapter 2**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Just a normal day-NOT!**

It was my last day of school. A day I've been waiting for for a while now. Maybe you are wondering what am I am studying, right? I always wanted to be a doctor even if my parents wanted me to a professional dancer. It isn't like I'm not good or anything like that, I just like to help people. Anyway, my name is Arweniel Farrion or Arwen for short and I'm 20.

I've got only one friend, but he's all I need. We have known each other since we were little and I always got along with boys more. Girls were everyday talking about absolutely boring things like: "Look at my new clothes!" or "How do you like my new ugly make-up?". Okay, they didn't say that ugly part, but it looked like that in my point of view.

I like animals, especially wolves and hawks, cooking, spending time with my best friend, said best friend's random moments (there was that time when he kept talking about his Christmas tree and presents for an hour until I told him that it was July), working in the garden and secretly practicing my magic and swordplay. No, you heard me right I said MAGIC. The truth is that everyone can use it, but people forgot that over time and now they think of it as just an imagination from stories for little kids. And why would I need a sword nowadays people would probably ask me. Well, I don't really need it, but it's my hobby and not many people even know it (my parents for example). Personally, I don't think I'm good, but my teacher always says that since he first started teaching me that I had a talent, not that I believed him. Oh, and my teacher happens to also be my uncle from my mom's side.

His name is Damien and he was always looking after me when my parents were too busy to do doing it by themselves. He doesn't have any children on his own, his wife, Serena, died when I was 9, she was really nice to me and I liked her, plus she taught me how to use a gun, for self defense she always said. I don't use it, but it can be useful someday.

My training with uncle was difficult at first, but I got used to it and after three years, it became something like a routine for me to train with him after school or when I simply had some time. Which also leads me to a question of how haven't my parents found out about it yet. Not that I would complain, I don't want them to know. To some it would look like they are just very overprotective, but for me and my best friend, it's just that they are being selfish and think that they can tell me EVERY SINGLE THING that I should do. That's why it was a miracle when they allowed me to study medicine, it took me almost like forever to persuade them to at least consider it.

I try to stay away from my home as long as possible since they started considering that i would marry someone. Why would i marry someone because they say so you ask?

Let's just say that my family is quite rich.

My father runs a second biggest company in the world and my mother is a famous fashion designer. That's why I've been these 13 years training with my uncle as an excuse so I don't have to see them. Don't take this wrong, I love them, but I wish they would let me decide things for myself, I'm already an adult for god's sake! Anyway, where was I again? Oh right my likes and dislikes.

I don't like a lot of things, but naming them all would take centuries. One of those things would be broccoli, a girl from school who I would rather not talk about, my best friend's ex, my parents sticking their noses to EVERYTHING I do, skirts, dresses and pink girly things, seeing anyone dear to me get hurt and people who keep saying that FF7 sucks. Yep, that's right, I like playing final fantasy.

Crisis Core is my favourite. I know it might be weird, but I don't hate or at least dislike any character there (Maybe except Hojo, but who doesn't hate him?). My favourite characters are Sephiroth, Zack, Genesis, Angeal and Cloud

Back to the topic at hand. Even if it's 8 years old game it has always been a lot of fun for me to play with my best friend whose name by the way is Kagen.

So that's how I found myself dragging (quite literally) Kagen by the collar of his uniform for the last day of school behind me since we were late... again. 'Why does he have to be so lazy for the love of...' I asked myself for what seemed like the tenth time that day.

"Come on Arwen, I can walk by myself you know!" He was trying to make me let him go for some time now, which was totally not happening anytime soon since it's 15 minutes walk to school from his house. I live further from the town in the mountains.

"It's your own fault that we are going to be late again! Besides, how many times have I told you to go sleep early?" I shot back at him.

"Not everyone wakes up at 4 in the morning like you! And I can't help it with these new games mom bought me for my birthday!" Of course. His mother is always trying to spoil him. The only reason why he is still normal is because I keep beating some manners into his head from time to time. I finally decided to let him go since he started to turn unnatural shade of purple in the face.

" And was that really a necessary? You know you will be able to play as long as you want to when we get back from school right? Anyway, today you will have to go home alone since my uncle has something to tell me." I only wished I knew what it was because he sounded troubled when he called me this morning.

"Eh? You're gonna leave me alone with them? Why?" Oh god, not again. I swear he would make a great actor at times with his over dramatic reactions.

"Sorry about that, but I don't really have a choice. I will make it up for you tomorrow, what do you think?"

"Sounds good, well, we're almost there what about a little race?" He asked me while grinning like an idiot. I think that he forgot just who he was challenging because believe it or no, I never lost in a race or a fight in a long time. I smirked inwardly.

"Fine, bring it on then!" He nodded at me and stretched.

"Okay on one... two... THREE!" And we took off.

Kagen was fast, faster than most people in our little town, but with my training from my uncle, it was mostly a one sided race. I made it to school gates about 2 minutes before him and didn't even break a sweat, not to mention I wasn't running at my full speed.

As he finally made it to school out of breath, he started protesting "How... can you... be... so damn... FAST?!" I just rolled my eyes and laughed a little at his expression.

"Let's just get going, the teacher isn't going to wait for us forever you know."

Finally catching his breath again, he said "Fine fine. Jeez, we still have 8 minutes."

I shrugged "Better sooner than being sorry later." And with that we made it to our class for the last time.

Our teacher congratulated us all for passing and after an hour he finally let us go back home. Before school gates I turned to Kagen and said my goodbye and then went in the opposite direction.

The walk to my uncle's house was awfully quiet, which was strange because the part of town where he lives in is always very lively. Most of the people took vacation at this time of year I guess.

I knocked on his door and called "Uncle, I'm here!"

After a moment he opened the door and smiled "Ah, if it isn't my favourite niece! Come in I have a lot to tell you after our training."

I nodded and followed him to his training room which mind telling you was huge. We took our swords and warmed up before sparring with each other like we always do. What I never realised was the speed at which we were moving was barely visible to a normal human eye. Both of us were just blurs. Attack, dodge, block, counter, dodge, attack, block. Finally seeing an opening I slashed at his shoulder and he dropped his sword at the impact in the sensitive area.

Both of us stood there for what seemed like forever unmoving and then Damien started laughing "You really are something I must tell you. This is the 24th time you have defeated me in a row now! I think that it's time I to give you something."

I looked at him confused but followed him into the secret room anyway. I was never in the secret room before, so I can't really tell what it looks like in there.

"Hmm, where would it be? Aha!" He took a strange key from his robe. He unlocked the doors to a room with stone walls with a single ray of light which was coming from the hole in the ceiling. It also appeared to be very old. Damien gave me a torch which I lit with a low level fire spell. It turned out to be some sort of cave. We walked for 5 minutes before we reached an old chest with a symbol of raindrop and thunder on it. Damien took out a strange glowing silver key and gave it to me. I stared at it for a moment before looking at him and nodding. I opened the chest with a little hesitation, but what I saw shocked me a little.

Inside was a beautiful silver katana with glowing blue lines along the edge of the blade with matching handle. I looked at Damien with a confused look, but he only smirked and urged me to take it.

So I did and I was surprised at its weight because it was a little heavier than it looked. Almost nothing seemed heavy to me until now not even a wooden box full of metal junk that my uncle made me carry for hours just because he was lazy to carry it himself. Maybe I could have mentioned that I'm a little stronger that I look.

Then the strangest thing happened and I heard a soft voice say something, but I didn't catch what. I looked around before realising that I heard it in my head. It spoke again, louder this time and making more sense.

'Who are you?' Okay, now I knew that it was a female voice. Why was she asking me about my name? As weird as it may be I answered out of pure curiosity.

'My name is Arweniel.' I answered mentally. The voice went quiet for a while and then a strangely warm and calming aura washed over me.

'Arweniel...' I waited patiently for it-her I corrected myself, to finish.

'My name... is Ame no Habakiri.' She answered with a somewhat happy tone or at least I think that it was happy tone I can't really tell with that echo in her voice.

'It's nice to meet you?' I said, unsure of what to expect. I was so absorbed with talking to Habakiri (that's how I'm going to call her) that I didn't realise Damien left me alone a little while ago.

'Be my Master and I will be your companion, be my Master and I will help you wash your fears away...' Wow, this sounds kind of cool if you ask me having a sword talking about helping you with your fears. Still, there was something that I just had to ask.

'Who-no. What are you?' I was really nervous at the silence that followed, but I still felt that strange aura embrace me.

'It does not matter who or what I am. The only thing you need to know is that I will be by your side no matter what.' I sighed but accepted the answer. That's when I realised that I was alone and quickly took Habakiri and ran back through the cave.

When I made it back to the training room, Damien was waiting for me with katana in hand and a wide broadsword on his back. He gave me only a little while before charging at me. On pure reflex I blocked his attack with Habakiri. She started humming in what sounded like an enthusiasm but I paid it no mind since I was fully focused on my uncle and trying not to get hit.

We exchanged blows for 10 minutes during which I got used to Habakiri and was now blocking Damiens attacks with ease. What I wasn't expecting was for him to jump 40 feet back and change his katana for broadsword. 'Uh oh' I thought. This will be a hell for me since I knew from past experience that it's very difficult to block a broadsword with a katana. Despite knowing this I still got into my fighting stance again and waited for him to come at me.

Just as I expected it was very tiring. We continued like this for another 5 minutes and I started to consider if I have a chance to win this at all since Damien didn't look like he was going to stop anytime soon.

A sharp headache suddenly ran through my head and I mentally winced refusing to show weakness. What surprised me were Habakiri's word 'Do not consider giving up Master!' she cried at me mentally. I scoffed and answered 'How do you expect me to win then? I'm at a disadvantage here!' this was getting ridiculous what was I supposed to do?

'Master... can you use broadsword as well?' she asked.

'Yeah, I'm better with it than katana but where do you expect me to get a broadsword?' It was strange how I was able to talk to Habakiri and focus on the battle at the same time. It came to me just... naturally.

'Wish for it.' she replied calmly. I hesitated for a while, but then I did as she told me. I opened my eyes 'When did I close them?' and I saw as Habakiri was consumed by blue light. It was so bright that I had to close my eyes again. When the glow faded and I opened my eyes. What I saw shocked yet fascinated me at the same time.

Habakiri changed from katana to a big wide broadsword with a slightly different shape but still had that silvery color with blue glowing lines. Even in this form she was still beautiful.

"Wow." I said, looking at Damien to see him stuck in place with a shocked expression. If I wasn't fighting for my life just a little while ago I would have probably commented how funny he looked to me while keeping my usually blank face.

'Is this better Master?'

I blinked and realised that I still had to defeat my uncle who has already regained his composure and was ready to attack me again.

I smirked and with a little to no difficulty attacked first. And it wasn't me this time who had to be on the defensive. As I slashed at him with a little jump I created a little crater after barely missing him.

'Oops' I haven't realised until now just how much has Habakiri's weight changed. It was ten times heavier now, but that was expected since she was almost as tall as me now. In the end she was still a heavy sword that no normal human could lift. The only reason why I could was because of my training.

Finally, after half an hour of mostly me playing with Damien, he finally seemed to be tired enough for me to end this quickly.

A strange power surged through me and somehow I just knew that it was from Habakiri. As quick as lightning I kicked him in the stomach and he doubled over and before he had a chance to recover I disarmed him.

He was breathing heavily unlike me who was completely more refreshed than exhausted.

"So.." he started "... it looks like there is nothing more for me to teach you." That was it? He must have known what I was going to think and added "You have handled that sword like you were fighting with her almost your whole life and yet it has been only an hour."

"I already know that Habakiri is special, but why did you give her to me?" I kicked myself a little because I partly knew the answer already now.

"To see if you will finally be the one since my sister refused to have anything to do with this it was up to you to finally wake up Habakiri from her sleep."

"... My mother knew about this?"

"Yes, but she was very selfish at that time and didn't give it a second though. You on the other hand, are the one who finally managed to do something our family wasn't able to do for centuries."

"... uncle?"

"What is it?"

"Where... where was I born? I always though it was in America like my parents claimed, but I have my doubts about it lately..." That was true. I never looked like them at all. My mother has strawberry blonde hair and green eyes with somewhat soft features while my father has chocolate brown hair and matching eyes with stern look on his face even when it was neutral.

I on the other hand have somewhat spiky (almost like a porcupine) black short hair with side bangs and almost glowing like blue eyes with a thin green ring around the pupil. To say that I was pretty would be the funniest joke of the century. I looked like a boy and acted like that most of the time too. My face has a little frown, even when I try to smile it only looks like a grimace. Maybe that would be the reason why Kagen keeps laughing every time I try to smile...

"..." Damien was shocked and then saddened at my question.

"Please... please tell me..." I was loosing my patience quickly, but the expression on my face stayed blank betraying how I really felt at the moment.

"I... I want to tell you I really do, but I just don't know how." At the look of total despair on his face I calmed down and asked in a softer voice, knowing he would perfectly hear me.

"You don't have to right now if you don't want to-" he cut me off quickly "No, I will tell you just where should I start..."

I waited patiently for him to continue 'Master no matter what the truth is, it should not trouble you so please, try to listen with understanding.' at Habakiris words I mentally nodded to show that I heard her.

"It happened 21 years ago when your parents were expecting their first child they were really happy about it and started planning everything beforehand. However, on the day when Chloe (my mothers name) was giving birth the child didn't make it. Both her and her husband were devastated when the doctor also told them that they won't be able to have a child on their own again."

I was shocked. Could that mean that I'm...?

"Arwen... I think you have figured it out so..."

I stayed still for what seemed like hours unmoving and thinking about what Damien just told me. 'Does that mean that my biological parents didn't want me?' it hurt, but to think that even if it was true I dismissed it quickly and looked back at Damien.

Suddenly I started to laugh, I didn't know why, but I just did. Everything I felt at the moment washed over me like nothing before. Sadness, betrayal, confusion and... relief? I think it was just too much for me to think straightly at the moment. I was never a very emotional person so I calmed down after 10 seconds.

Damien looked startled at my sudden outburst, but seeing relief reflect in my eyes calmed him.

"I don't know if I should shout, cry or be relieved. But I should have expected this a long time ago right?" I smiled a real smile that actually didn't look like I was going to murder a puppy.

"As much as I want to ask you so many questions I have to go home now or mother will go all angry banshee on me again. Thank you uncle you don't even probably know how much it means to me that you told me the truth." With one last glance at Damien in the middle of the room, I grabbed Habakiri (back in her katana form), sheathed her and in a slight rush took off home in a sprint.

Houses passed by like a blur a after 15 minutes of running I reached my destination. With my keys I opened the front door and was greeted with my mothers usual muttering (or more like complaining) about her having a bad luck lately at work and not having enough ideas for new designs. She often made me help her when I wasn't busy with homework or a project for school.

As quietly as I could, I made my way to my room on the third floor (I already told you that we were rich) and shut my door. I sighed in relief and hid Habakiri in my closet, but not without getting a little sound of protest for that. After that I made my way down and greeted my mother who looked rather overjoyed and made me help her with her work for few hours while asking me about the smallest things I did today (I told her about everything besides the training and conversation i had with uncle). Before I realised it was already 3PM so I excused myself and made my way back to my room.

After locking my doors I took Habakiri and she started humming happily. After a little while I decided to play my favourite game. Oh yes, you heard me right I was gonna play Final Fantasy Crisis Core. I haven't played it for... 3 years? 'Wow, I really had to be very busy if I haven't played it for so long.'

Three hours later I was happily kicking Genesis copies butts (I actually like Genesis, but he is the villain so what can I do). Playing for another hour I actually saved the game and changed from my school uniform (men uniform since girls have to wear skirts 'blah') into a pair of fitting black pants and simple black shirt. I also took a pair of black leather gloves and black combat boots since I will be probably out until dark. Of course I had to take Habakiri with me.

I opened my window and jumped out dropping with a soft 'thud' before running off to my secret training place where I also go when I want to be alone. It was deserted when I came here because it was far from the town and no one in their right mind would go there just for a picnic... especially not in the late afternoon or night anyway.

After practicing my hand to hand combat and martial arts I was slightly puffed and decided to practice with Habakiri for a change. I went through every form and attack I knew for a katana and after a while I remembered that Habakiri can change so I mentally told her to do so.

This time she has changed without that blinding light and I did the same as I did with her katana just a little while ago.

By the time I was finished, I was breathing heavily a little because I went through everything for about five times but I was satisfied with my progress. Also, this time I have a chance to actually take a good look at her broadsword form. It looked like her katana form, but much wider and longer. Taking that I stood at 6'1 feet might sound ridiculous, but I learned to live with that a long time ago.

I changed her back and by 11PM I made it back home (I was walking this time) luckily my mother never bothered me when I locked my door so after climbing up a tree I got back to my room through my window like before. Also, just when I went into my bathroom I started to feel extremely tired ' Weird, I have been okay, just a little while ago' so I decided to just brush my teeth and without changing to my pyjamas fell on my bed. Just before I blacked out I though I saw my television turned on with Crisis Core on it.

 **Sorry if this isn't making any sense right now, but I can promise you that the next chapter is more insteresting or so I believe.**


	2. The madness begins

**I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or anything from it, only my OCs and few other things.**  
 **Enjoy!**  
 **Oh and sorry if the first chapter was a bit confusing, but I will reveal everything in time I promise!**

* * *

 **Chapter 2 - The madness begins!**

For the first time in what seemed like forever I had actually a pretty peaceful sleep. So you can only guess how I felt when I started to realise that there was a sun shining on me because of 1 My curtains always block the sun 2 My mattress felt oddly like a grass and 3 There was someone who was daring to poke me!

Poor guy never saw that coming. I absurdly stood up, grabbed him by his arm and before he could react threw him over my shoulder to the ground, hard, of course I was very far from using my full force but still enough to leave a bruise for at last a week. All that done in half a second. I was always a light sleeper and I did not take it kindly from anyone to wake me up because I always woke up before everyone else in the whole town probably. Also, I quickly wake up and I'm only rarely groggy or dizzy in the morning.

Suddenly I froze because what I saw took me completely by surprise.

I was in a forest.

A FREAKIG FORREST!

And as if that wasn't enough for my brain and sanity altogether I was pretty sure that my parents were not the type to simply dump me in the middle of nowhere for fun. I then remembered that I wasn't alone and looked at the person next to me. It was a man in his late twenties as I looked at him now was lying on the ground unconscious.

'Crap I overdid it... again' I thought with a sweatdrop. I once made a mistake and since then... Well, long story short, it was supposed to be a simple sleepover and I kind of did the same thing to Kagen. He never dared to come anywhere near me since then when I fall asleep.

That brought me to a thought. 'How did I get here anyway? Is this some kind of joke? No, that would have woken me up.' As I was trying to come up with a logical explanation a sudden voice made me almost jump.

'Master, I think it would be wise to ask that man when he will wake up.' Said Habakiri and I instantly relaxed when I realised that she was still with me on the ground.

I picked Habakiri up and looked at the man again. He had light brown hair and by his type of clothing I would guess that he was from some sort of village or small town in Japan.

I sighed and sat down waiting for him to wake up. After 5 or so minutes (I can't tell since I lost my phone) he started to stir and after few seconds opened his eyes which were green by the way.

"Ugh..." From the way he winced when he tried to sit up he was clearly feeling it. Definitely overdid it.

"Um, hello?" Okay, that wasn't the smartest thing to say, but I'm not really going to beat the answers out of him now since it wouldn't lead to anything.

"Ah, hello... who are you?!" That made me almost flinch. How he can be really loud when he wants to be. But there was a reason why I waited for him to wake up so I will have to ask him anyway.

"I'm..." Great can I tell him my real name? It's not like it will hurt me or something. ".. Arwen." I said awkwardly. Did I mention that I don't like it when people call me by my full name? Well, now you know.

"Oh! You are the young boy that I found sleeping near the waterfall!" Waterfall? Oh, he's right. If Damien saw this (I shivered at that though), he would have probably kicked my sorry ass for disobeying standard rule that he taught me.

Those rules are:

1 Never take your eyes from your enemy. (or enemies when he made me fight some of his friends that decided to come for a 'visit')

2 While talking to strangers and suspicious people try to act unemotionally and like you don't know anything. (which I'm already doing)

3 Keep track of your surroundings. (the one I just broke)

4 In a case of emergency or life or death situation in order to survive you have to kill. (if you are just curious I have killed a person before)

There's a lot more, but they aren't that important for you to know. Wait a sec... did he just called me a boy?! 'I've got really slow reactions when I space out.' I noted to myself.

"Um, yeah I'm sorry about earlier, but you startled me. And excuse me sir, but I'm a girl..." I wasn't offered or anything since people mistake me for a man more often than I would be able to count, but I'm used to it because it's my own fault I use bandages instead of a bra. It's more comfortable to move like that for me even if it was a little difficult to breathe at first.

"I'm sorry! You just have a very deep voice and boyish look! Anyway, it's okay, just wow you sure are stronger than you look. And by the way my name is Kirage." I will explain about my strength and speed when I will feel more like it. Forcing your body to look relaxed is tiring at times, but useful.

"If you don't mind, could you please tell me where am I and what day it it? I kind of lost a track of time." That wasn't a complete lie. I knew the year obliviously, but I really forgot the date sometimes.

"You are rear a small village in Wutai and its 1 July 1995." Okay, since I know where I am now-did he just said WUTAI? And the day is the same as back at home but 1995? That's 5 years before Crisis Core I think. How can I be so calm about this? I'm a very accepting person even if it would mean never seeing my old home ever again. Uncle taught me a lot of self control.

Then something hit me "You don't look like a Wutaian to me." I said with narrowed eyes. Uncle always told me that it always made people tell me the truth because it was kind of scary. Kagen once told me how he nearly pissed his pants when I did that on his ex when she tried to get together with him again after dating like 3 other guys. I never saw her after that again.

Kirage visibly shuddered and quickly said "Well, I'm not from around here, but I'm just visiting a friend!" Taking pity on him I stopped glaring and he instantly relaxed.

After talking some more with him about little details I noticed a strange backpack hidden in bushes. When I looked inside I found my phone, pouch with some gils, 5 phoenix downs, 10 Hi-potion, 3 Elixirs, 10 Ethers, Knights of round materia, Shiva summon materia and some food with water to last for 3 or 4 days (I eat more than normal girls since I need more energy for my sword training).

When I reached the bottom of the backpack I found a note written in German (I can speak German, English and Japanese). And since no one on Gaia would be able to read it was safe to read it out loud.

"Hi! I must apologise for this is too sudden, but I need a little favor from you. I'm sure you know about Jenova and Shinra already so let's not waste time by explaining. The problem is that even if the events go as they are supposed to, it will only leave the planet very weak, which would mean that Gaia wouldn't survive for more that 20 years. That's why I chose you to hopefully prevent all this from happening. This backpack is something like a gift to help you with your task. If you success, then I can send you home if you will ask me to. First, you should make your way to Midgar a look for a way to stop the Mako reactors. Be aware that there's a lot of innocent people so please be careful if you decide to blow them up. Also, I have changed your sword a little so now you can equip it with materia. That would be all from me for now so good luck a try not to kill yourself. Minerva"

'So it was she who sends me here after all' I mused to myself 'But this is gonna be a long way since Midgar is so far from Wutai. Not to mention the war...'

"Kirage do you by any chance know how to get to Midgar in a few days?" It's worth a try, right?

"Actually, I was just going to head back tomorrow morning. I can take you with me if you want to."

"Thanks a lot. Can we go to the village, then?"

After 10 minutes we were in his friend's house whose name was Maya and we had a little late lunch since it was 3PM already. They talked about their families, things they did and random things here and there. I was mostly only listening and spoke only when they asked me a question. Maya was nice enough to let me stay for the night, which I tried to refuse at first, but soon realized that she wasn't going to back down anytime soon.

Later that day I went for a walk before the dark. It was almost too peaceful to be a war zone until I heard shooting about 2 miles to my right. Without really thinking about it, I simply ran and made it there in 3 minutes. I wasn't expecting to see a Wutai warrior trying to kill an old man who looked like a simple traveler. Just before he was able to stab him I cut him down with Habakiri and turned to the old man who was lying on the ground unconscious. I sheathed Habakiri and lifted him up.

After inspecting him for any visible injuries I made my way back to Maya, who instantly noticed the blood on my clothes and offered to take care of the old man and borrowed me some clothes because mines were bloodied. Since I didn't have much of a choice, I agreed and changed into a pair of shorts and white shirt while she was cleaning mine.

I woke up the next day before anyone else, so I made my way to the backyard and dried my clothes faster with a low level fire spell. After that I changed back and waited for others to wake up.

A few hours later we said our goodbyes to Maya and made our way to the docks. To say that traveling by ship for a day was going to be amusing would be an understatement. About 3 hours after the ship started to move it appeared that there was some Wutai fanatic trying to blow up the ship by planting a bomb near motors. (this ship belonged to Shinra)

Unfortunately for him the first person he bumped into happened to be me. When he tried to punch me, I simply dodged, grabbed him by the wrist and threw him into the ocean. People stared at me like I was crazy (which I probably already was) but I ignored them and returned to reading a book about Shinra that I bought on the way to the docks.

You can't know every single detail about it since there's a lot of things that you won't find in the game. Plus I had about 15 more hours before the ship will reach the harbor in Junon. This ship was rather fast if you ask me.

So now that I have some time to explain things which some of you are probably dying to know... I have decided to do it now. About my strength and speed then. Uncle always dwelled on keeping me in shape which he did. He made me run everyday 30 miles around the town to increase my stamina, but that's not all he always gave me some weight to slow me down. When I was 10 he taught me how to make myself stronger by using all of my energy. Normal human can use about 10% of his or her full strength. In my family, they knew how to unlock said energy and thanks to that we are stronger, faster and more tough. For example, I can jump 40 feet in the air and what would have broken a bone of a normal human will only leave me a bruise. Of course that doesn't mean that I'm immortal and when I get shot it still hurts, but I can deal with it thanks to my high pain tolerance. My uncle also always taught me that being careful all the time can't simply always save you. I learned how to focus my hearing and sight so I can hear and see almost like animals. As for my magic, it's the same as magic here in Final Fantasy only that I can use it without materia (except the summons) it still takes my MP, but I worked on it too and I'm able to cast for a rather long period of time before getting tired.

I fell asleep and woke up about half an hour before we will reach Junon. Kirage probably didn't dare to poke me again after that incident yesterday. Soon we reached Junon and had to split up there since Kirage has something to take care of and he will be able to go to Midgar next week. I had to hide Habakiri since civilians weren't allowed to carry weapons there.

I found an inn for night but couldn't sleep because I just had this nagging feeling that something is going to happen soon. I pushed it into the back of my mind and tried to get some sleep even if only for 2 or 3 hours. Morning came faster than I would have expected, but I still got up, had some breakfast and headed to Midgar after persuading some guards that I wasn't carrying anything dangerous (I nearly jumped out of my skin when they approached me).

It was about 2PM when I came across a little family of three who offered me a ride which I gladly accepted since I wanted to get to Midgar as soon as possible even if I didn't know why I just did. Krea and Alexander were very nice people and I liked them, especially their little daughter Nella. She was so adorable! We talked a lot with her mostly asking me tons of questions and me answering as best as I could without giving too much information. What I didn't want to tell them that I was from a completely different world.

A few hours have passed with nothing interesting happening. Nella fell asleep on my lap few minutes ago and I just didn't have the heart to wake her up. It was mostly peaceful until I thought I heard something like a hiss, but I dismissed it as an effect of my lack of sleep last night.

Which of course was a _big_ mistake.

Not so long after that I heard something again, but this time I was sure that it was probably a monster. And a damn big one at that. Looking at Nella and the young couple I made a choice a said as quietly as possible.

"Leave me here and get out of here as fast as you can." They were confused at my sudden change from cheerful to dead serious, but still nodded and waited for me to get off and instantly after that sped up.

'Okay, now that they are gone where are you?' I was pretty sure that it must be something that normal human wouldn't be able to deal with. I stood there in a swamp and waited for any sound or movement. Nothing was happening for a few seconds until suddenly something caught my leg and one moment later I was in the air, turning so that I can land on my feet 50 yards away.

'Oh please don't tell me it is what I think it is...' There was only one thing that I know that lives in a place like this and is this damn big. And as if answering my question a freaking huge Midgar Zolom emerged from the water a moment later with blood red eyes blazing with bloodlust and sharp long fangs pointing from its mouth. Well, fuck.

I have never fought a monster before if you don't count those that I killed in Wutai and when I was still alone before those nice people gave me a ride but they were nothing compared to this thing. Not even close. I will have to kill it, that is if it won't eat me first. And no way in hell I wanted to end up as a snack for monsters. With this in mind, I prepared Habakiri and instantly changed her to her much bigger and destructive form since from what I read in some monster books Midgar Zolom has pretty tough scales.

'Okay, you big ugly thing bring it on!' And as if hearing my thoughts, it charged at me which I was barely able to dodge but recovered quickly and cut its tail off. Let's just say that it wasn't very happy about it and before I could react knocked me with what was left of its tail into a rock. I was pretty sure that I was seeing stars and stood up quickly. It hurt, but I went for its head this time only that my attack wasn't strong enough from my dizziness and the scales were too hard to break through.

'Dammit! Where does he have a weak point? Think!' while dodging and attacking it at the same time I noticed that there was less scales on its front side. ' Bingo' and with that I waited for it to come at me. Thinking that I was giving up, it did and just before it would swallow me I sidestepped and made a long slash from its throat to the middle of its body. It screeched in pain and tried to crush me, but it was already too weak for that so I dodged it without much difficulty. Before it could react I ran Habakiri through the inside of its head, but it managed to scratch me with its fangs before finally going limp leaving only blood stains in the water.

I was breathing heavily before changing Habakiri back and sheathed her. I threw one last look at the giant snake before running off as fast as my legs could carry me in my with my injuries. To my surprise the family was waiting for me only 10 minutes later and after seeing me in my current state instantly asked me what happened. I made up a story about some small, weak monsters surrounded me and that I'm just tired. They believed it and we rode for the rest of the trip in silence. It's not like I can tell them that I killed one of the most dangerous monsters on the face of Gaia.

After a few moments when the adrenaline wore off did I just realised how tired I was after that fight. Hey, I'm only a normal human too and that I got out of it with nothing broken is a miracle. What I didn't realised was that there was someone watching and saw the whole fight.


	3. Midgar, exams, SOLDIER and friends

**I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or anything from it, only my OCs and few other things.**

 **And before I forget I hope that things are more clear for you after second chapter. Plus this is going to be longer than before.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - Midgar, exams, SOLDIER and friends**

 **Two miles from the fight**

"Where do you think a big thing like Zolom can hide?" Someone asked, clearly annoyed.

"They have their nests in swamps, they can be anywhere." His companion said in calm yet warning tone.

"Then how come we have not found anything yet?" Whined the first.

"I swear if you're going to continue with this attribute I'm going to rid you of your pay for a month." Okay what was his problem?

"Whaaaat? You wouldn't be that cruel would you?" The second person's left eye twitched. Why did he have to be stuck with him of all the people?

"Let's just focus on the task." His tone left no room for argument.

"Yeah, yeah loosen up a little will you-" CRASH "Hey! What the hell was that?" They looked at each other and nodded before heading to the place where they heard the strange sound come from.

When they made it there they saw a Zolom they were looking for just a few minutes ago, however what surprised them was the person with giant broadsword fighting him. They decided to wait and see how it will turn out from a safe distance. They knew that it was practically impossible for a normal human to defeat something like that, but looking at the mysterious person's sword, they kind of got a feeling that this probably isn't even normal.

In the end they saw as the person waited patiently for the Zolom to charge at him (at least the person looked like a man in their point of view) and in the last moment sidestepped and cut him from his throat to the middle of his body and without missing a beat then ran his sword through the head.

Blood painted the water and the person as they noted finally stood still, had black spiky porcupine like hair, blue eyes and was at last 6 feet tall. Then he turned, transformed his sword into katana and ran in the opposite direction of their current locations.

The first turned to his companion slowly and said "Holly crap. Did you just see what I saw?" The second only nodded dumbly before thinking about what he has just seen. 'Is that even possible to do something like that? It clearly wasn't a SOLDIER either.'

Finally, he dismissed the thought before turning to the first person and informing him that since there was nothing to do for them anymore they started to head back.

The only thing that bothered them both was who the hell was that. The second, however smirked and with a last glance at the now dead Zolom though 'Whoever he was, he is centrally interesting.' Oh yes, he was going to find out who the mysterious person is.

 **Back with Arwen**

I woke up to a sound of someone's voice. Little child's I noted. And then I realised what happened earlier and sat up. Just as I thought we were almost in Midgar. Nella and her mother were preparing their suitcases from their vacation in Costa del Sol as they told me before. They dropped me in sector 5 and I bid them goodbye. As I wandered around looking for a place to stay. Almost all the people, but mostly kids, tried to pickpocket me. Keyword tried. I hissed at adults and scolded most of the kids if they didn't instantly ran away out of fear. I sighed and finally found a decent looking inn. The owner gave me a suspicious look, but handed me the key to my room anyway. I guess you don't see someone with a sword besides SOLDIERs down in there often. Inside my room I looked at my phone that it was 5PM and put it on the nightstand next to the bed to recharge since I didn't have a chance to do it until now. 'Maybe I should just hunt down some monsters since there isn't anything much I could do besides thinking.' In a half an hour I washed and dried my now clean clothes 'I should buy something to wear too' and left the inn to look around.

 **Back to the two unknown persons**

"Are you sure you want to mention it?" Asked the first clearly nervous. They were discussing on their way back the mysterious person and decided to tell their higher ups about him.

"Do you want to lie to the company and be treated as a traitor?" The second sighed tiredly.

"No, it's just that we don't even know if they-you know-will consider recruiting him. I just don't really have a good feeling about this." It was very rare for him to be serious even if only for a moment. But he can't help it, something has been unnerving him to no end since 'that' happened.

"What do you want to do then? And think fast because we're almost there." The first one cried out in frustration. This was just too much for someone to handle in one day.

"Let's just get this over with." This has been just too troublesome.

 **With Arwen again**

The day passed by like a blur and soon I was back in my room fresh out of the shower in my new pyjamas and ready to go to sleep. I did some practice with Habakiri and after I felt tired enough sheathed her and fell asleep.

I was woken up by someone rudely knocking on my door 'Go away' I thought in annoyance.

Then I absurdly got up after realising that I slept a little longer than I normally do. I made my way to the door and was greeted with the owner of the inn.

"Is there something wrong?" I always tried to be polite even if I felt like murdering someone at the moment.

"Nothing... miss" Finally noticing that I'm a girl? "There is just someone who wants to see you." I raised one eyebrow at that. Who would want to see me? I don't know anyone! Okay, maybe if you don't count the little family I met, but I'm sure that they don't even know where I am right now.

"Tell him please that I will come down shortly." He nodded and left after that. I sighed and decided to wear a simple blue sleeveless shirt with dark blue baggy pants along with a new pair of combat boots and gloves. Checking myself in the mirror, I decided that nothing was amiss and headed downstairs.

Let's just say that I expected a lot of nearly impossible things like what if that Zolom came back from the dead to take a revenge on me-NO. I expected some sort of gang or even monster but no. Fate just wants to mess with me today because the someone who was waiting for me was a turk.

'Oh dear Gaia, no please don't tell me that Shinra knows about me already.' And how would they possibly know about me anyway? I didn't even do anything yet! Unless they can look into people's heads, but I highly doubted that it was possible even with what they are able to do now.

Keeping a carefully blank face as I approached him and waited. He looked back at me with his expression mirroring mine. We inspected each other for a few more moments before I decided to finally say something.

"Do you need something, sir?" I refused to show just how nervous I really am at the moment.

"Actually, yes there is something I would like to ask you."

"And what would that be?"

"Yesterday me and my colleague saw some rather... interesting incident." Please don't tell that they saw me kill that Zolom. And if they did well, I'm screwed. I just hope that they don't want to kill me or something.

"I'm afraid that I do not understand what you are talking about."

"Shall I refresh your memory then?" He took some photos out of his pocket on his suit before continuing "Does this seem to look familiar?" And of course it was. On one of them was a picture of dead Zolom with a hole in its head and others showed me while I was trying to kill it without getting bitten by its poisonous fangs. I unconsciously gritted my teeth together, but kept my facade neutral.

"What does a dead Zolom has to do with me?"

"Still trying to deny it? Very well. I know what I saw and I would like to ask you again. How did you managed to do that?" His eyes were boring into my very soul and it was unnerving me.

"With all due respect, that is none of your business, sir." I said with an ice cold tone and matching icy glare, at which he took a little step back without really realising and I smirked in satisfaction in my mind.

He cleared his throat and said "Perhaps we should finish this conversation somewhere else?" What was he trying to do now? Still, I nodded and followed him into a little cafe near sector 7. He ordered some breakfast while I simply sat there and waited for him to cut the crap out.

"So..." I started ".. what do you want from me?" My words held a hidden warning which didn't go unnoticed.

"I suppose there is no reason to walk around the bush then. Let's just say that your... skills caught our attention um-" That was it? They just want to... recruit me?

"-Arweniel Farrion and I see honestly no reason for my skills to be special." He seemed shocked and realisation appeared on his face when I told him my name. Guess he didn't even know that I was a girl. Oh, how I like to confuse people~

"Tell me miss Farrion how would you like to work for Shinra then? Of course-" Oh dear god I don't want to be a turk and murder innocent people! True, it would give me an easy access to information, but it was still not worth it. No, no and NOPE. "-as a SOLDIER." NOO-wait, what? I stared at him with a somewhat disbelieving look and asked the million gil question.

"I thought that females were not allowed in SOLDIER?" At least I haven't seen any of them in the game.

"In any normal circumstances, no but someone with your 'talent' would be more useful there." I always wished to be a SOLDIER as a little girl but now it just sounds too good to be that simple.

"What is the catch?" He seemed to hesitate and think before replying.

"Well, you see our science department is kind of interested in you." Ha! I just knew it.

"And what if I don't want to join?"

"Then we will have no other choice but to keep an eye on you for any suspicious activities." In other words kill me on sight if I do something anti-Shinra. The turks always gave me this bad feeling like they can take you out by any given moment without anyone noticing. I knew what would happen if I refused. They would bring me to Shinra and make me Hojo's guinea pig for the rest of my miserable life. If I accept the offer then I would be working with Shinra and still end up as Hojo's guinea pig even if only part-time it was still not a very nice picture. But at least I would move secretly against Shinra if I got a chance and maybe make some new friends. I kind of missed Kagen already. Even if I don't need much of talking everyday I can still start to feel lonely from time to time. I really didn't know what to say so I replied with the first thing that came to my mind at the moment.

"Would you mind if I would tell you my decision tomorrow? I need to... consider your offer." I chose my words carefully and tried not to offend him.

However, he smiled almost like he knew he was already going to win. "It wouldn't be a problem. I shall wait for your decision until tomorrow morning. Have a nice day miss Farrion." With that, he stood up and paid for his food before exiting the cafe. After that I stayed for the rest of the day in my room thinking about it. I didn't want to do both of them, but only one was a slightly lesser evil. I sighed and with one last tired look at Habakiri fell asleep.

Just like yesterday he came to me early in the morning and we sat in the same cafe. This time both of us ordered something and after we finished our food the dreaded subject came.

"So miss Farrion how have you decided?" There was that smug smile again. It took all of my self control to not rip it out of his face right now.

"I..." Great what am I supposed to say? I don't want either of them, but I knew that there was no coming back now so I only did the only sensible thing I could. "... I accept your offer." There I just sold my soul to a demon. Well, not literally, but with Shinra one can never really know.

"Excellent. I only have one more question." I looked at him with a nod to continue. "There seems to be a little complication since we haven't found anyone with your name in the records. Care to explain?" I have thought about this actually and without missing a beat said "That would be because me and my father used to travel all the time. We never really stayed anywhere for more than a week. He also taught me everything I know right now. His name is Damien. We were separated from each other some time before I decided to look for him in Midgar." A harmless little lie that isn't a complete lie.

"I see and do you perhaps know where were you born?" Shit. I quickly tried to come up with something and said the first thing that came to my mind. "I... think I was born in Mideel but I don't know for sure. Father never told me." Huf. That was close.

He studied my face for any visible lies, but I was careful and he didn't appear to catch anything. He then smiled again and handed me some paperwork that he brought with him. I searched it over and in a matter of 30 minutes filled it and handed it back. He scanned the papers quickly and nodded in satisfaction before looking back at me and saying the thing that I hoped to never hear in my life.

"Well miss Farrion welcome to Shinra." Oh Gaia why did I agree on this again? Well, there was no coming back now so I could do nothing more than prepare for tomorrow. I was obliviously going to start as a 3rd class and since they are just going to have this year's exam tomorrow I had to pass them with the rest of the cadets who decided to take it this year. Sweet. And they even gave me an apartment already. They are 100% sure that I'm going to pass so... the only thing I'm worried about is how I will be treated by others. I know some might have some respect for me, but not all the people in the world would agree that woman belongs somewhere else than in the kitchen.

I have gathered all of my belongings and with that headed to the Shinra building where he would be waiting for me (he still haven't told me his name but I was planning on asking him).

Some time later he was showing me around the Shinra building and explaining things like what was on each floor. As I found out his name was Samuel and by the time when we finished the tour, he led me to my new apartment where I was supposed to be staying for the time being. It was very simple with 2 bedrooms, small kitchen, bathroom and small living room. I dropped my things in one of the bedrooms which had sky blue walls with white ceiling, queen sized bed in the left corner with nightstand on the left and big closet in the right corner. The bedroom had no windows, but that was fine by me.

I bid Samuel goodnight and tried to get as much sleep as possible since I was never really able to do that for long. Whatever I'm nervous or have a bad feeling about something I just can't. So I tried to think about different things like my old home and my best friend. It actually worked and soon I fell into mostly dreamless sleep.

I woke up at 4AM which was 3 hours before exams and I decided to run through everything I knew because one can never be sure enough. The writing exams are at 6AM but I already finished them yesterday while I was filling the paperwork that Samuel gave me. You should have seen my face when he told me that. And as if it wasn't bad enough, I had everything right. Life sucks. Half an hour before the start of field exams, I dressed in a uniform that I got yesterday because everybody (even people picked for their skill like me) had to wear cadet uniforms. It wasn't actually that bad, but I always prefered sleeveless shirts.

There was like 300 participants and 10 or 15 inspectors, but I can't really tell since there were too many people. It turned out that the field exam has 3 parts. 1 To test your stamina by running 2 Gaining points by fighting against each other and 3 Final test in the virtual reality room with random mission about killing monsters. That didn't sound difficult at all. And I was proven right. They separated us into 3 groups with each having 100 members. I was in the group who had everything in order like I named it before and the rest is going to have it slightly differently. We were supposed to be able to run 20 miles. It took a lot of self control for me to not laugh. When everyone finally finished it turned out that only 50 or so made it. The same happened in the other groups. Fighting against them was... amusing I guess? It was surprising that they let them take the exams at all as I watched them but I guess that it was only because I was more experienced then them. Finally, it was my turn and in a matter of seconds I won. I ignored their stares and waited for my next match.

That left 25 of us and we were ready for the finale. I have to admit that it looked a little more challenging than those hedgehog pies and hell houses in the slums. I found myself in what looked like a very familiar cliff not so far from Midgar. And guess what I got? Another stupid Midgar Zolom! Are they stupid or what?! 'I swear they are doing this on purpose. There is no way they would give this to cadets!' I didn't have my Habakiri since we were forbidden to have our own weapons. Still the broadsword that I got right now should be enough because this time I knew its weak point it shouldn't take that long like last time. 'I guess it's a good thing that Samuel is the one watching my progress or else this would have looked insane' and with that I charged at the Zolom who mind telling you haven't even blinked until now. It wasn't much of a fight since this one wasn't big like that I fought few days ago, but it was still able to give me at least few bruises and I tasted blood by the time it finally fell. Still, when I walked out of the virtual reality room, I could have sworn I saw a hint of a familiar blonde haired goddess in the crowd smirking at me. I quickly dismissed it and waited with the rest of those who had a chance of passing. When they were done and announced the names in alphabetical order I didn't have to wait long before it came to my name.

"... Arweniel Farrion also the first female to ever pass this! Next John..." The stares that once again landed in my direction were completely hilarious, but I mostly ignored them like I always do. Without me there were about 20 other people that passed. Some of them looked somewhat normal, but I should still be careful.

Some time later I waited nervously before the science department. My legs felt like jelly and even a simple thought about Hojo made me mentally shiver. But alas, it's my own fault that I'm going to end up like that. Well, at last the nurse looked friendly when I was called and told me to lie on the metal table in the middle of the room. She restrained my hands (for my own safety, she said when she saw my frightened look) and at that exact moment the mad scientist decided to finally show himself. In real life he was actually a lot creepier than he seemed at first.

"Nurse gives the patient some anesthetics." I was relieved that I won't have to be awake during the whole process. However the nurse didn't exactly know how much to give me since it takes a bit more to knock me out. And as if he knew this, the creep quickly added.

"Nurse give her ten times more doses than usually this is going to take a while." I didn't like that smirk on his face. All about him just screamed 'RUN BITCH, RUN!' which I would gladly do if I wasn't restrained to that stupid table... 'Puppies! That's right think about puppies and Sephiroth!' Okay, maybe not Sephiroth, but it still barely helped the situation, no matter how impossible and hilarious it looked, but I still felt better a little by thinking about Kagen's dog that he got about a month before all this madness was thrown upon me.

Before I actually passed out I heard Hojo dismiss the nurse. Wasn't she supposed to be here and help? Yep, this only kept getting worse and worse.

When I regained consciousness again, I was still in the lab, but in a strange tank filled with green glowing liquid. 'Mako..' for some unknown reason I could breathe in it. Then I heard noises which were muffled, but I still understood some of them.

"Doctor! Do-She's wak-up!" "Good-you can-now!" The nurse I saw earlier dashed out of the lab probably because of Hojo. Not so long after that the tank started to empty. I coughed all the liquid out when it reached only my shoulders and oddly enough I felt completely fine. Nothing hurt or even felt sore not to mention that everything sounded so clear now. Probably even better than before and my sight was the same. I still had all of my clothes I came here with on.

I looked at Hojo and waited for him to say something-anything.

"You my dear are quite an interesting specimen." Why was I expecting this? "Yes, yes you are just exactly what I needed!" He went to the next room and came back a moment later with a big syringe filled with transparent liquid. "Sit." I wanted to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible so I just did as he said and almost too happily stabbed the syringe into my left shoulder. Nothing was happening at first, but then I started to feel like my veins were on fire. On the outside, the only visible evidence of how much I was in pain was the sweat that rolled down my face. After a few seconds (it felt like hours) I felt completely normal with only slight dizziness and I just had to ask.

"What the hell was that?" "J cells-" I have that blue hag's cells in me now?! I'm going to die I'm going to die...' "-not that you need to know what that is and don't forget that you are going to visit me at least once a week for five months. Do you understand? Good now off you go! I have other things to take care off!" When I exited the lab (surprisingly at a normal pace) I made a run for it into my apartment and I didn't give a single fuck how people stared at me like I was crazy (Isn't this happening like everyday? Hojo is a creep after all!). I took out my key card and slammed the door shut, breathing heavily from all the stress. Thanks goddess I was given five days off to get used to the enchantments. That reminded me of something. I walked slowly to my bathroom almost afraid of what I was going to see. What I saw scared yet fascinated me at the same time. My eyes were still the same sky blue with green ring around the pupil only that they were glowing and I was pretty sure that it would be visible in the dark too.

When I stepped into my bedroom I froze. The clock on the nightstand said that it was 23PM but what I haven't noticed until now was that I could see in the dark like I do in a day. Was this even normal? I shook my head and changed into simple blue pyjamas and with one last sigh fell onto my bed. That night I had a dream. A dream that I'm not going to forget anytime soon.

I opened my eyes and was met with complete whiteness only the ground was filled with grass. There were some white feathers here and there too I noted to myself. But the thing that took me surprise was that someone was standing back to back behind me. By this I could tell that we were of similar height. As curious as I was to look who it was I stood still like I already knew that. Finally, as if the person behind me noticed my presence stirred, but still stayed in the same spot. We stayed like this for about 10 minutes until the mysterious person decided to break the silence.

"I have never seen anyone in my dreams before. Who are you?" I nearly jumped at the sudden sound of his voice which was deep and definitely belonged to a man, but most of all it was very familiar, I just couldn't put my finger on it. And how was I supposed to know? I have never met someone in my dreams before either.

"To be completely honest, this is the first time I'm dreaming about this." Silence followed after that until he spoke again.

"Have we perhaps met before? I have a feeling that I know you from somewhere." He too? Now I was beyond confused and my stomach started to feel funny.

I was just about to say something, but he beat me to it "It looks like you are going to wake up soon. Still, it was nice to meet you."

"Likewise" And with that I woke up at 4 in the morning like I always do. 'What was that supposed to be? It felt so real...' I pushed it out of my mind and went into the bathroom to take a shower. After that I dressed in what I was wearing when I first woke up on Gaia. I was planning on buying some groceries since I didn't trust the cafeteria enough to eat anything from there. Besides, I always enjoyed cooking even if I wasn't best at it. 'And some plants too.' I missed my Dahlia and roses. My grandmother taught me how to take care of almost every kind of plant she knew. Since it was still too early for the shops to be open I spend 2 hours meditating. It always helped to clear my mind. It was half past six when I decided that it was the right time to go buy groceries. Nothing interesting happened so about an hour later I was just finishing my breakfast of eggs and bacon. When I was about to talk with Habakiri there was a knock on the door. Sighing at the sudden interruption I decided to do it simply later and opened the door with somewhat frustrated look. There was a man holding a big box. When he looked at me (or more like my eyes) he seemed shocked and without another word handed me the box and left. 'What was that about?' I dismissed it quickly and opened the box in my living room.

Inside were five 3rd class SOLDIER uniforms and a note. I stared at it for a moment before reading it out loud.

"For Arweniel Farrion SOLDIER 3rd class." 'Hmpf' "I would like to congratulate you on the behalf of the company and wish you the best of luck in the future. Signed president Shinra." 'Great, at least I don't have to meet him yet.' And after checking earlier and making sure that there was no one to spy on me burned it in my hand.

Now that I had a lot of free time I decided to simply wander through the halls of a 53rd floor (that's where the SOLDIER apartments are) since there was nothing for me to do. After 2 hours I got bored and decided to read a few books since I didn't have so much free time before to do that. By the time I was finished with my fourth book it was 19 o'clock and with nothing else to do I made some pasta for dinner. After that I decided to speak with Habakiri since she has been very quiet lately. I sat on the floor of my bedroom in meditating position and held Habakiri.

'Habakiri?' I asked, unsure if I was going to receive any reply. But much to my relief I felt her give off that calming aura again.

'What is it, Master?'

'You have been quiet lately. Is there something wrong?'

'It is nothing to be worried about. Just that the goddess has something to tell you.' Minerva? What would she want when I didn't even do anything yet.

'The message she sends you is: Do not look back. Keep going straight forward.' Is she trying to tell me to forget my past and focus on the future?

'I see thank you Habakiri.'

'You are welcomed Master.'

After that the days flew by quickly and before I realised it was my last free day. I had that same dream everyday, but still didn't find out who it was. Still, I got up, made some breakfast and went to buy some groceries again. Nothing special. Then I walked into my bedroom and found a note on my bed. I picked it up curiously and it said to go to the medical wing for physical examination after my treatments. Medical wing was 10 floors bellow and when I got here a doctor instantly called me and started asking me questions about how I felt or if I was feeling dizzy or even if there were some side effects. Then I noticed some patients lying deadly still and seemed to be in some deep sleep.

"Doctor, if I may ask what is wrong with them?" He gave me a strange look but still answered my question.

"They are recovering from their mako treatments from three days ago. Wasn't it the same with you?" Three days ago? Weren't we all done on the same day?

"No, I was actually given five days off. I was released from the lab just after my treatments." His eyes widened at this.

"And you walked out on your own?" I nodded. "That's quite unbelievable if you ask me, but if that is the case, then you must have a really high mako tolerance. Well, don't let me bother you anymore. You are free to go."

I spend the rest of the day on my bed wondering about what the doctor told me. 'Well, it's not like I can do something about it now.' I will have to go to sleep early to get as much energy as possible for the start of my training tomorrow.

Morning came faster than I would have liked and I dressed in my new full SOLDIER uniform. The armor gave me a little trouble at first, but I managed to do it right after a few minutes. With my now fully exposed arms the muscle I had on them was completely visible. I wasn't a complete macho or anything like that, but it was still a lot more that it was normal for a woman, but I was satisfied with how I was right now. No wonder they always mistake me for a man. I had bandages wrapped around my chest like always too. The training started us at 6 so I had another hour to get used to the uniform.

Twenty minutes before the training I decided to come early since no one told us who was going to train us. I had to leave Habakiri in my apartment because we weren't once again allowed to have our own weapons until we reach 1st class, but there was simply nothing I could do about it no matter how much stupid it was. After 10 minutes I arrived in the training room for 3rds before everyone else but after a few minutes it started to fill with others and soon we were only waiting for our mentor to arrive. There was a lot of whispering and muttering, but I paid it no mind and waited. Finally the door to the training room opened and everything went silent. I instantly recognised the person and mentally my jaw hit the floor. Before us stood a tall man with black hair and blue eyes and on his back was a very familiar buster sword. The man that I keep meeting in those dreams was Angeal Hewley. Great, just great.

He started to examine all of us and when his eyes landed on me, I tried to make myself as invisible as possible. He only raised one eyebrow at me and continued with the boy next to me. We haven't really noticed that we formed ourselves into a straight line until now but stayed like that until we received an order. He nodded to himself in what seemed like satisfaction and introduced himself. Then he gave us his infamous speech about dreams and honor. It wasn't honestly that bad like everyone claimed or maybe it was just me. He then told us to form into pairs. And guess what? The fate just wanted to screw with me again and it was me who ended up alone since there was 21 of us. Unluckily for me Angeal noticed this and said that I was going to be with him. He approached me and asked me the last thing I wanted to answer right now.

"What is your name SOLDIER?"

"... Arweniel Farrion sir." I said quietly hoping he won't be able to catch it. No such luck since he heard it pretty clearly. However, I wasn't expecting to see his eyes widen a little and then he simply told me to grab my broadsword and show him what I can do. The others already sparred with each other and we were the only ones who were still doing nothing. I took one calming breath and waited for Angeal to start first. He caught on quickly and one moment later I was trying my best to defend myself and attack here and there while not showing my real strength. We were so into the fight that we haven't noticed that the others stopped completely and watched us with interest and awe. I knew that he was holding back since I was only a 3rd for a few days, but so was I not that he needed to know that.

We were both breathing slightly heavily after 30 minutes, but still both of us refused to give up. I was so focused on the fight that I didn't really cared if I overdid it anymore, so when I saw an opening I instantly took my chance before he could react. His broadsword fell to the ground with a dull sound and he looked shocked when he realised that. At the same time I snapped out of my trance and cursed under my breath. The audience of 20 that were gathered around us were gaping at this which didn't help my situation at all. He then picked up his fallen broadsword which seemed to be slightly cracked and dismissed us. Just when I was about to exit the training room he called after me and I froze.

"You will wait here Farrion." 'Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!' I was cursing in my mind with every swear word that I knew and was pretty sure that a very familiar blonde haired pilot would be proud of.

"I would like to have a word with you." Well screw this I'm not getting out of this one.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" A dumb thing to say, but I can at least try to act clueless.

"Where did you learn how to use a sword like that?"

"My father taught me that. We were travelling a lot sir."

"And what was his name?" Is he trying to get some things about my personal life out of me or what?

"Damien Farrion sir, but I doubt that you will find anything in the database since we never stayed anywhere for more than a week." Give him the same story that you gave Samuel. Easy enough. Also, my mother kept her surname even after she married my father so I wasn't making this up.

The silence between us was unnerving to say at last.

"Can I go now sir?" He looked like he was finally going to let me go, but then it seemed like he remembered something at the last moment.

"Actually, there is another thing that I'm curious about." And I knew very well what he was talking about.

"Why do you keep appearing in my dreams?" There. I knew it was pointless to lie, since I knew that he was a very clever man and would figure it out.

"I..." How can I say it without making it awkward? "I don't know, sir." My eyes were downcast. I simply couldn't bring myself to look at him. I heard him sigh and his next words took me completely by surprise.

"Fight me." I looked at him with shock and disbelief.

"Wha-" He didn't even let me finish and before I realised what was going on kicked me in the stomach. I hit the wall pretty hard but still not enough to knock the wind out of me. I then looked back at him with narrowed eyes 'It's on..' screw the idea of holding back now. I charged at him with the speed of a bullet and soon we were continuing what we started earlier only this time with neither of us holding back. I had to admit that he was strong but so was I.

I soon found out that even if we were almost equally matched in strength I was still faster and I was proven right when I quickly managed to sneak behind him and he wasn't able to dodge a well aimed kick into his back. It knocked the breath out of him as he fell to the ground and I used it to my advantage and grabbed him by his arms and twisted them behind his back in a very painful position if he tried to get out of my grip. Which he tried, but as soon as he realized that it was pointless and only brought him pain stopped wiggling. He then closed his eyes and relaxed as a silent signal that he was giving up. I released him, but still kept my guard up. He stood up and studied me for a moment before simply shaking his head and walking away, leaving me alone in the training room. I stayed there for a few more minutes before I decided to simply go out to clear my head a little.

When I came back it was almost midnight and almost no one was in the halls by now. I was so lost in my thoughts that I wasn't really paying attention until I bumped into someone. I instantly snapped out of my trance of thoughts and looked at the person I walked into. It was a girl probably around my age with blood red hair and yellow eyes and she was wearing a suit. 'I don't remember seeing her before.' Still, I should help her stand up at last.

"I'm sorry! Are you hurt?" I'm not the best at apologising and it was even a little awkward for me.

"It's okay and I'm fine." She said hastily letting me help her stand up she looked at me and gasped.

"Is something wrong?" "Wrong? Of course not! You are the first female SOLDIER aren't you? I really wanted to meet you for some time you know!" Wow, she definitely likes to talk a lot but somehow I didn't mind that.

"Yeah, that would be me by the way I'm Arweniel Farrion or Arwen for short, it's nice to meet you." She excitedly took my offered hand and shook it rapidly.

"It's nice to meet you too! My name is Shadette Kage and I'm a new turk here." Well, that would explain why I haven't seen her before. But as I looked at the smaller female before me, I got a feeling that I'm going to see her a lot in the future.

"Say would you like to be my friend? There are barely any other females around here and the ones that I work with are all serious and business so it feels kinda lonely from time to time." Shadette finished with a pout and I couldn't help but chuckle at this.

"Sure, I don't see why not. The truth is that I would use a friend myself. The guys around here are kind of either afraid of me or they think that I'm too shy." About them being afraid of me... Well, you know how I told you I had 5 days off right? On the 3rd day I kind of got into a verbal fight with another third class and it ended up with me glaring and him covering in the corner saying something about a blue eyed demon. Since then, some of them avoided me like a plague.

"Nice! Hey, do you have some plans for tomorrow afternoon?"

"Not really why?"

"There is a new emporium that was opened just about a week ago and I need someone to go with me. I don't want to go alone since it's no fun at all! So what do you say?" She looked at me with those puppy dog eyes that Kagen used to make at me, back at home, even if he knew that I was immune to them but looking at her right now and I lack of friends I just couldn't say no.

"Sounds great. Where do you want to meet?" "Meet me before the Shinra building at 3PM and please try to wear a normal clothes since people tend to stare at SOLDIERS all the time whatever they pass by! Oh, and imagine what it would be if they saw you. The news about you spread through Midgar like a wildfire so they would definitely recognise you right away and-oh! It's already that late? Sorry Niel, but I will have to go now or else my boss is going to kill me. Bye!" And with that she dashed off, leaving me with a dumbfounded look on my face. 'Did she just gave me a nickname?' I shook my head and returned to my apartment instead. Habakiri asked me about my day and after talking with her for a little while I took a shower. I laid on my bed not being able to fall asleep. I thought about everything that has happened today from the awkward morning to meeting Shaddete. 'Maybe I should give her a nickname too let's see... Shade is perfect!' After that I was finally able to pass out while hoping to not have that dream again tonight. But since the fate once again just loved a little too much to torture me I did. It was the same as before only this time I was wearing my SOLDIER uniform and I actually knew who was standing behind me and refused to look back or even speak. It seemed like we were going to just ignore each other the whole time but he actually decided to break the silence.

"I... I'm sorry." I instantly looked back at him and by the look on his face I knew he meant it.

"It's okay, I shouldn't have reacted so aggressively towards you either, but I really have no idea about... this." We stayed silent after I said that, but he looked like he wanted to ask me something but was hastening so I decided to ask him instead.

"What is it-" I didn't get to finish because suddenly he hugged me. HUGGED ME. I was so shocked that I simply couldn't move at all. However, it wasn't uncomfortable or anything.

"When does the sky cry?" I was confused by this since I have never heard this before.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"So... she was right after all." After that, he pulled away and I could see sadness like he was crying yet no tears fell from his eyes and for some reason it made me sad too. Just as I was about to say something a blinding light that always announced when I was about to wake up consumed me.

"We shall meet again... Arwen." That were his last words before I found myself in my bedroom again. Today I had to go into the science department to see Hojo like he told me to and since it was Sunday I didn't have training today. I grumpily got up and made some pancakes for breakfast. I quickly ate them and took a sip from my glass of orange juice.

After that I dressed in my SOLDIER uniform and combed (or at last tried to) my hair and went to the science department on the 57th floor. Since it was only 4 floors away, I decided to take the stairs. When I got there I was surprised to see that even if it was very early there was a lot of scientists running around. I didn't have to wait for too long before one of Hojo's assistants called me in. Hojo was working on some paperwork when I came in and he turned around when he heard my footsteps.

"Ah miss Farrion! It's good to see you again." There is was again why can't he just stop smirking at me like that just for a moment? "Well then! Let's not waste any more of both of our precious times." He picked up an already prepared empty syringe and took some of my blood. He analyzed it and then nodded to himself and his smirk only widened. This could only be anything but good. "Lie down on that table like last time since this is going to take a few hours." Few freaking hours?! I really hope he's going to give me anesthetic like last time since I don't really want to be awake while he would be doing whatever he does. Luckily for me he did and it was stronger this time because mako made you more immune against thing like poisons, alcohol and etc.

When I woke up again I was relieved to not be in a mako tank again, but my uniform still smelled like it so I guessed I was there for a little while. I heard some footsteps to my left as Hojo came back in scanning some papers. He then noticed that I was awake and took that syringe with colorless liquid again. As much as I didn't want that thing's cells in me I had to stay still and surprisingly it didn't hurt at all this time and Hojo seemed to notice this too.

"Now that we are done, you can finally go out and tell that turk friend of yours to shut up and get lost." With that, he left and I instantly knew that he was talking about Shade. When I stepped into the hallway, I was nearly tackled by Shade who looked rather worried.

"Are you okay? Did that creep do something to you? If he did something I'm going to murder him!" She sounded dead serious about murdering him and as nice as it sounded I can't let Hojo die yet since I don't know where he is keeping Jenova at the moment.

"No, I'm fine, I was just on one of my weekly check ups since there's a chance for some side effect. You know being a first female SOLDIER and all." She seemed to calm down after this and led me (or more like dragged) into her apartment on the 45th floor. We were supposed to meet in two hours, but since we were already together we decided to go there sooner. Shade let me use her bathroom to get the smell of mako off and lent me some black shorts and dark blue tank top with nice creamy sandals that fitted me because when she looked into my closet, she nearly fainted at my sense of fashion while muttering something about SOLDIERS... After half an hour she finally concluded that I was pretty enough so we made our way to the new emporium.

When I saw it, I couldn't help but gape at how huge it was. Mom had taken me to a lot of shopping centers before, but none of them compared to this. Like I said it was simply huge. Shade didn't hesitate and went through a lot of clothes shops with me trailing behind and her suggesting things that would look good on me. In the end she made me buy at least ten new tops, shorts and jeans. By the time we were finished with shopping it was half past seven and we decided to have some dinner in a small exotic looking restaurant. Shade ordered some sort of mixed meat and vegetables while I ordered roasted duck filled with some spicy sauce. I have to admit that it was quite delicious, even if spicy foods rarely got along with my stomach. We paid for our food and decided to see a movie before going back. There was at last 10 different movies to choose from and we agreed on one with title 'Shut up!' which was supposed to be a comedy. It was completely hilarious, but since I don't laugh or even smile a lot I only snorted here and there while eating popcorn with Shade. When the movie ended it was already 22PM and we had to get back. I was in a rather good mood because it's been a while since I was able to do something like this with a friend- no best friend. We were just in the elevator waiting for it to reach the 45th floor.

"Shade thanks for today I haven't got so much fun in a very long time."

"It's nothing! We should do this more often, don't you think? And maybe this time you will catch the attention of some guy. I honestly can't believe that you never dated anyone! You have the looks you just need to smile a bit more~"

"You know I'm not interested in dating right now-" BING!

"Well, I gotta go now so I will see you tomorrow!" I stayed in the elevator to take me to 53rd floor where I lived. It stopped at 48th floor and when the doors opened it took a lot of my self control to now gasp because guess who it was? Angeal Hewley, who seemed rather distressed about something to even notice me and simply pressed the button to the 55th floor. I stood there in complete silence and tried to make myself invisible, which would have succeeded if it wasn't for my traitorous PHS which gave out a notice about the recently received message. Maybe it was a bad idea to give Shade my number after all. The sound snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked at me. We stood there in silence, looking into each others eyes while trying to come up with something to say to break the awkward silence. Thankfully the elevator decided to save me and before he could say something and I dashed into my apartment. It wasn't like I hated him or anything but I didn't want to talk to him now. Not before I will figure out what it was supposed to be about yesterday. Plus, I knew that there was no chance at avoiding him in my dream. I sighed and tried to think about something different. The stress has been getting to me lately more often than I would like to admit.

Much to my surprise, he actually kept his distance this time.

"What did you mean when you said that?"

"..." Great. Just great how was I supposed to figure things out when no one decided to cooperate with me today? I sighed and walked closer to him until we were 5 feet away from each other. He actually looked up at me, but still kept silent, which was bugging me since he was never this quiet in the game (which kind of wasn't a game anymore). He then opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again and turned his back to me. I frowned while walking quietly to him and forcefully turned him to face me. He avoided eye contact but I could see some unknown emotion on his face. It was familiar, but I couldn't remember from where. I released my grip on him and tried to think of a way to make him talk to me.

"It's nothing..." Like I would believe something like that.

"Nothing? Then why did you say it if it was just nothing?" I wasn't going to let my temper get the better of me but I was only human too had my limits.

"..." There we were at the start again. I sighed and took tome deep breaths to calm down and it actually worked. I decided to ask him in a calmer tone.

"You know it will only get worse the more you keep it inside." This time he seemed to be thinking about an answer. I waited for him since there was nothing else I could say at this rate.

"It's just...complicated."

"I have more than enough time to listen."

"I can't tell you." I raised an eyebrow at this and I knew that I made him feel uncomfortable, but I decided to not pry because of the way he was acting he didn't seem like he was going to tell me anything.

"Fine. You don't have to tell me." I smiled and shook my head with closed eyes while he just looked at me shocked that I let it go so easily but seemed relieved at the same time. Then I decided to try something.

"Now come here!" I hugged him and he froze for a few seconds before slowly hugging me back with a surprisingly tight grip. After a few seconds of simply standing there I pulled away and smiled at him again.

"Well, it was nice talking to you again Commander, but it seems like I have to go now." I waved at him before the sight of my bedroom ceiling greeted me and I had to get up because it was five in the morning and training was going to start soon.


	4. Training, missions and surprises

**I do not own anything besides my OCs and few other things.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 - Training, missions and surprises**

If there was something that never ceased to amaze me it was how people can always easily lose track of time. 'I will get her for this later.' I thought as I sprinted through the halls of the Shinra building because I was late for training. I would have been there before everyone else like before if it wasn't for a happy-go-lucky red haired Turk that I call my best friend who just decided to "say hello" while passing by my apartment by coincidence. I didn't believe her even for a second.

Now I had about 3 more minutes to get my sorry ass to the training room. I just fucking love my life right now because I was never late before. Never. Still, as I ran I couldn't help but think about my last conversation with Angeal in 'our' dream. For some reason I felt slightly better because it didn't feel right when there was so much tension. I put it into the back of my mind and focused on the task at hand. To get to the training room on time or even better with some second or two to spare. As I turned around the corner, I came face to face with a person that has been on my mind since this morning. We stared. And stared. Then he raised one eyebrow in amusement like he knew what I was so distressed about right now.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the training room already?" Great even he seemed like he was enjoying reminding me this.

"I got held up by a Turk Sir." I had a feeling that Shade was cackling somewhere at my misery.

"Does this Turk happen to have red hair and yellow eyes?" It looked like everybody knew Shade by now because it was like near impossible to not know about her when she was in her "hyperactive mood" as I called it.

"Yes?" I answered with awkwardly long e.

"In that case you are getting out without punishment, but only this once. Now hurry up I will give you 10 more seconds." He didn't have to tell me that twice because the moment those words left his mouth I was gone and left only a little cloud of dust behind me. If I wasn't so focused on running I would have seen him crack a small fond smile while shaking his head and going after me in a slower pace. I made it there about a minute before him with the rest of the new 3rds staring at me like I have just lost my mind. We stood in line again when he came and this time we have started with learning some new moves. Well, mostly the others since most of the new moves were almost if not completely the same as the ones that uncle taught me back at home when I was just ten. We practiced them for 20 minutes before he told us to form pairs and try them while sparring with each other. I once again ended up being alone, but much to my great relief I didn't have to fight this time. Angeal walked up to me and said in a very quiet voice so that only I could hear him.

"Since you already seem to know everything from today how about you show them how to do it properly?"

I gave him a disbelieving look and he only had a little smirk on his face. I sighed, but decided to just do that. It's not like something can go wrong right? He yelled for everyone to stop and give me some space. I closed my eyes and breathed in and out before grabbing my sword and executing every move perfectly like he showed us. When I was done, I heard clapping.

"Well done and now I want all of you to do the same. You will never reach 2nd class if you won't be able to learn the basics!" And with that they went back into sparring with each other while I simply leaned against a wall and observed them. I felt someone do the same next to me and without looking up asked.

"I won't pry if you don't want to tell me but that doesn't mean I'm not curious." He looked back at me and sighed while muttering something but thanks to my enhanced hearing caught it clearly.

"Maybe I will tell you in the future, but I'm just not sure what to tell you to not get it in a bad way." That made some sense I guess.

"Fine, but promise me that you won't die until then okay?" He chuckled at that and muttered under his breath in rather nostalgic tone.

"Different yet still the same." I didn't get what he meant by that so I simply shrugged and waited for the training to end.

When I got back, I started to make some lunch since we still had some more training in the afternoon. When I was about to start eating someone knocked on the door so I had to get up and go to see who it was. As I opened the door, I felt a lot of different emotions. Happiness, because I wanted to talk to someone at the moment about something that didn't involve strange dreams. Annoyance because someone dared to interrupt my lunch and anger because if it wasn't for the person standing before me I would have been spared that awkward moment and almost being late. Shade only grinned at me and like nothing happened and started rambling about her morning.

"Oh, that reminds me something smells good. Is that a roasted chicken? Can I have some? Pretty please?" Okay, I wasn't exactly expecting her to do this, but still gave her some and while we were eating, she continued to say thousands of things at once which I only half listened to.

"... and then there was that guy and-are you even listening?" I grunted at her as yes, even if I didn't get a single thing that she was talking about. "Okay, where was I again? Oh! There was that guy and he was like really cute!" Okay, now my brain was definitely on autopilot. Still, she didn't seem to notice this and went on with me making some sounds here and there.

"... so I had to-aw man! It's almost two already? I will have to go now. Bye!" Finally, she left me alone. I think that if I had to listen to her any longer my head would have exploded. Wait, did she say almost two? It was just that I had my afternoon training at two... tick... track... tick... tack... tick- "Shit!" I quickly washed the dishes and ran as if my ass was on fire. Surprisingly, I made it here three minutes early and sighed in relief. 'I should really keep a better track of time or else I will get into a lot of trouble sooner or later.' And it went the same as in the morning. Angeal was observing and correcting everyone while I simply practiced alone on the other side of the training room since I didn't want to spend the time by leaning against the wall again. Can't get out of shape now can I?

After finishing warming up I decided to try for how long I can run before getting tired. Afternoon training was longer so it was okay. I was running only my 105th lap before someone called me. I stopped and turned around to see Angeal standing about fifty meters away from me. I gave him a look that said "What?" and he simply pointed at the clock on the wall. It showed 20:37. They ended two hours ago already? I guess I was just too focused on my activities that I wasn't paying enough attention. I sheepishly scratched the back of my head before picking up my sword and started walking to my apartment.

"Wait." I turned to look at him and he was staring at me like he was looking for some differences on me. And since we were alone, I allowed myself to relax a little.

"What is it?" "Do you remember your biological parents?" What kind of question is that?

"No Damien was the only parental figure I ever had. Why?" He seemed shocked by this for some reason.

"Just curious."

"Well, I have to go now. Goodnight Commander."

"Goodnight to you as well and you don't have to call me like that when we're alone, you know." After that he left me alone and I made my way to Shade's apartment. She said that she was going to be home by seven so even if she was a little late, I was sure that she would make some time for a friend. I knocked on her door and she opened five seconds later. When she saw me she grinned and instantly dragged me inside while asking me questions about my day.

"There is just something I would like to talk about with you." I had my serious expression on and she almost immediately stopped smiling.

"What is it?"

"Well, you know how I was noticed by Shinra right?" She nodded. I didn't even know why I decided to tell her, but there was just something that kept telling me that she was trustworthy enough.

"Let's just say that there is something I would like to share with you." Shade only needed this and she gave me some space.

"Okay, so it started like this..." Then I told her about my home, my parents, my best friend, my uncle and his training and how this was supposed to be only a game in my world. She listened to every word I said and only nodded when I asked her if she was keeping up. Then I got to the part with Habakiri and then how I probably got sent here. By the time I was finished, she was staring at me with her mouth hung open. She then closed it and became silent for a few minutes. I was getting worried that she would think that I was crazy, but then she was suddenly in my face and seemed to be trying to squeeze the life out of me with a hug.

"That's the most crazy yet amazing story I have ever heard! But I believe you since it makes a complete sense with everything that happened and how you are so strong. There is just one thing I didn't get."

"Hmm?"

"How come you can share a dream with someone? I know it probably isn't impossible when you think of your situation, but it's still kind of weird don't you think?"

"You're telling me. I don't know anything about it myself so it's a little difficult not to mention Angeal's strange behaviour. In my world he wasn't acting like this in the game. Not even for a single moment."

"Maybe you remind him of someone?"

"That's possible, but I still don't know what he meant by that "When does the sky cry" thing."

"Did you thought about some kind of riddle?"

"Yeah the only problem is that I have like never heard anything like that before. Jeez I'm going to have gray hair at this rate by my 25th bithday!" I was really relieved that she was trying to help me but I still had some problems that cannot be simply discused and dealt with right away.

"How about you try and sleep now? Maybe some rest should help you."

"Thanks it's getting late anyway. Goodnight Shade."

"Night Niel!"

Later that night I was sitting on my bed thinking about everything that has happened since I woke up on Gaia. It felt like months even if it was only two or three weeks.

'I will just think about it tomorrow.' I closed my eyes after that and waited for the sleep to come.

I was dreaming about the same place as I always do since that day I became a SOLDIER only this time something changed. The grass and feathers still remained but it was raining now and it seemed like there were more features than before. The rain wasn't cold. In fact, it was comforting. I always loved rain and thunderstorms. I was there, sitting alone in the grass before 5 minutes later he appeared. I greeted him with a single wave of my hand and then pointed at the sky. To say that the expression on his face was hilarious would be an understatement. His eyes were wide and his jaw dropped. I couldn't help it and snorted. He turned to face me and I patted the spot next to me in silent invitation. We sat there in comfortable silence, observing the rain that was slowly but surely developing into a thunderstorm. Then suddenly an idea came into my mind and I mentally smirked.

"So..." He looked at me and waited for me to continue. "... do you by any chance have something to do tomorrow afternoon?" I was now smirking at the outside too, and he looked a little terrified as if knowing that it was never a good thing for me to act like this.

"I-I you see-" I didn't let him finish because I knew he was just trying to find an excuse.

"Then how about we will go to the mall tomorrow?" If you could hear my thoughts right now it would have sounded like a wolfish laugh. My face was almost literally screaming "do it or else".

"I don't see why not..." And it actually worked.

"Thank you!" I was now squeezing the life out of him as he tried to get some air into his lungs but didn't try to get me off.

"Ar-... can't... breathe." Crap I still keep forgetting about my own strength sometimes and make wasn't helping it either.

"Sorry." I loosened my grip on him a little so he could take a deep breath but still had my arms around him. 'It's way more comfortable like this anyway-wait. Since when do I hug people?' I blushed at the realisation and quickly pulled away while muttering "Sorry..." again.

"It's okay." At least he didn't seem to mind that, but it was weird since I never acted this playful with anyone. Not even Kagen. Maybe he just kept reminding me of my stuffed real life sized wolf plushie that I used to sleep with when I was little. We were staring at each other again and when he opened his mouth to say something-

'Master! Wake up! You are going to be late!' -I fell face first to the floor.

'What the hell?!' I was already getting ready, but that didn't affect just how ticked I was by the sudden interruption. After dressing myself and eating my breakfast at record time I made it just in time because Angeal was already there and before he turned to us I quickly got into the line without anyone noticing. The poor guy who stood next to me nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned his head. There has been just one thing that really confused the fuck out of me. 'How did he get there so damn fast?!' Well, either he woke up earlier or I have simply pretty shitty luck and-was it just me or was there a little smirk on his face? I decided to ignore it and made myself look impassive instead.

"Before I forget there is something I need to do this afternoon, so the training is canceled." 'Wow, he's actually going to do it.' "Now we will start with 50 laps and then 250 pushups as a warming up. Go!" At that we started to run with me in the lead running at my top speed.

They were only halfway done with their laps by the time I started doing pushups which I finished sooner than Angeal expected me because when I looked at him he only stared at me with somewhat blankly.

"Is there something wrong Sir?" I resisted the urge to crack an amused smile at this. One moment he looked like he knew me better then I knew myself and the other he stared at me like I just did something humanly impossible.

"No but since you are already finished you can start doing whatever you want as there's nothing new that you could learn with a sword anyway." I only shrugged and suddenly an idea came to my mind.

"Sir would you mind if I sparred with someone this time?" He raised an eyebrow at this.

"I don't see why not but be careful we don't need anyone to get hurt today since tomorrow will be your first mission." First mission? What are they going to give us killing some hedgehog pies? I was pretty sure that they don't trust a fresh bunch of 3rds outside of Midgar. Unless it was to send us to Wutai. I then waited for them to finish and Angeal picked up the one with the name of John to spar with me. "He should survive your boredom" he said. John was looking at me warily almost as if he expected me to kill him if he dared to move.

"I'm not going to bite you you know." I tried to smile so it wouldn't end up looking like a frown. He still seemed to hesitate before getting into his fighting stance. I drew my own sword and waited for him to attack me first.

Some time later we had to get a little break because he was breathing rather heavily and his hands were shaking a little from my blows. I was holding back but it was still enough to leave a bruise if he got hit which I still tried to avoid. After another ten minutes we started again and before we realised it was already 12:30. I walked up to John and offered him a hand, which he accepted and I helped him stand up.

"Hey, you're not bad, but you should work more on your defense. I could have knocked you down at least fifty times already."

"Defense was never my strong point but thanks anyway!"

He was the last one to leave and now it was only me and Angeal who remained. I turned to him and caught him trying to sneak out without me noticing. However, before he reached the exit I grabbed his shoulder and whispered in low dangerous tone.

"And where do you think you are going?" I felt him shiver under my touch and he slowly turned his head to look at me."You didn't forget did you?"

"Of course not." He sounded very nervous, so I let him go and spoke in a more normal tone this time.

"That's good to know meet me before the Shinra building in an hour I will be waiting for you. And if you don't show up I will hunt you down and drag you with me." With that I ignored his shocked face and went ahead to get ready. Half an hour later I was chatting with Shade while she picked up some clothes for me to wear because according to her I had a completely nonexistent sense of fashion.

"What should fit you hmm... Oh! This is perfect." With that, she threw something at my bed. I changed quickly into it and decided that it wasn't so bad.

"It's actually pretty good. Thanks Shade." I was wearing a simple blue tank top with butterflies on it and a pair of light gray shorts with long black boots that reached my knees.

"Anything for a friend! And do you want me to apply some make-up?" I grimaced at the word.

"No! I'm okay with how I look right now." She pouted at that.

"Aww come on! If I didn't know that you were a girl I would have been already all over you and even if it's not a date you should still at least try to look a little like a girl."

"Shade, really I'm okay with that people confuse me on daily baisis and I'm still sane."

"Okay then. Hurry up now! You are supposed to meet him in 15 minutes!"

"Bye Shade!"

"Bye!"

I made it there about 5 minutes early and waited for Angeal to show up. When I heard someone approach me, I turned around and waved at Angeal. I have to admit that it was really weird to see him in something different than his uniform, but he didn't look bad at all. 'Makes me wonder if he ever wears anything else than his uniform when he doesn't have to work.'

"Well are you ready then?"

"Just let's get this over with." Oh, if only he knew what was waiting for him.

"It's not going to be so bad you know."

"With you one can never be so sure." I only looked at him clearly amused by his response.

"Come on now we don't have all day to stand here and chat." I grabbed his hand and started to drag him behind me to the mall. Maybe I should tell you now why I wanted to go there with him so badly right? Well, let's just say that there's a new big cafe. But that's not all. They have karaoke in private rooms which is for free. I wanted to hear Angeal sing because back in my world, I really liked his Seiyu's songs (even if they speak English they have their original Japanese voices) and there was just a perfect song for that. Sure, I planned on singing too, but he was going first. I found out about this when I was only half listening to Shade's babbling, but I still caught it.

"Here we are." We stood in front of the cafe now and before he could complain I pushed him inside. I chose a little private room far from the other occupied rooms so that we could get some privacy. We sat down on the couch and started to look through the menu. When a waitress came and took our orders while talking in a sickly sweet tone to Angeal. I didn't like the way my chest tightened at that and gave her one of my glares. She only needed to take one look at my face to instantly turn as white as snow and bolted out of the room after excusing herself. Angeal looked at me confused. I only looked at him with a blank face and shrugged as if I just didn't scare her away. A few minutes later the same waitress brought our orders and as fast as she could then left again. We chatted a little while we ate and after finishing our food it was the time for 'that'.

"You are making that face again..." I only looked at him with blank expression again making him sweatdrop at the sudden change. Then I got up and started preparing the karaoke. It flashed to life and I was happy that hey got the song I wanted him to sing.

"what are you doing?"

"Come here." I said within my dead serious tone. He walked hesitately to me.

"What's wro-" I quickly started the song and gave him the microphone. I then sat back and looked as he stared at me in shock. I only grinned back before mouthing at him a simple "you're gonna be fine" and leaned comfortably into the couch waiting for him to start singing. He sighed and shook his head in defeat like he knew that there was no way to back down when I set something up. He took a deep breath and started.

Ore no me no mae tada nagareru

Kono futatsu no fukai kawa

Hageshii nagare wa senaka wo osu

Ima hikigane hiku youni to

Aa misesarete

Ochite yukou ka?

Naraku no kawa e

Unmei wo kimeru no wa

Jibun no kokoro tatta hitotsu

Hikikaesu basho nado nai sa

Kono yo no doko ni mo

Migi-te ni wa dakuryuu ga

Hidari ni aoki mizu ga nagaru

Hito wa minna hitotsu no kawa shika

Watare wa shinai

Tomaru koto naku

Tsumi wo seotte koko ni tatsu yo

Mi wo kiyomeru sube mo naku

Kako no bourei kienai to shite mo

Mada mirai wa te no naka ni

Aa juukou wo mukeru-beki wa

Onore no yowasa

Mae wo miyou hateshinai

Harukana kanata noboru asahi

Dare yori mo kono jibun sou uragirenu nara

Migi-te ni wa zetsubou ga

Hidari ni tooku miyuru kibou

Hito ga minna tomarenai nara

Tada susumiikou

Ano hikari e to

Unmei wo kimeru no wa

Jibun no kokoro tatta hitotsu

Hikikaesu basho nado nai sa

Kono yo no doko ni mo

Migite ni wa dakuryuu ga

Hidari ni aoki mizu ga nagaru

Hito ga minna hitotsu no kawa shika

Watarenu no nara

Tada hikari e to

(Dakuryuu no Hotori Seiryuu no Fuchi by Kazuhiko Inoue)

After the song ended, I found myself sitting in the same spot unmoving with my jaw dropped in shock. 'Holly shit he sounds even better in real life!' After a while of complete silence I decided to finally say something.

"You know, if you weren't a SOLDIER right now you should have been probably a really good singer." He scratched the back of his head. But that wasn't all there was a tint of pink on his cheeks. Was he blushing?

"I'm not really that good..."

"Nonsense! Now pass me the microphone, it's my turn." He seemed surprised by this, but did it and sat down on the same spot I did just a moment ago. I started looking through the songs before finding one that I knew and started it. I don't sing often, but it always calmed my nerves or improved my mood when I was feeling down.

Mikazuki no kimi yo kakureta mama de

Itsuka koikogareta

Itoshisa yo kimi yo utsuro utsuro ni

Awai yume wo misasete

Mou kore ijou nani mo iwanai de

Shiroku kaoru hana no you ni...aa, yasashiku

Nee tatoereba fureta yukigeshou

Namida harari ochita ato de subete wo sasageta

Mikazuki no kimi yo kakushite okure

Dare ni mo mienu you ni

Kono sora ga itsuka ochite shimaeba

Sono kokoro wo dakeru no?

Sou hitamuki na mama de ite hoshii

Sugita hibi ga ima mo boku wo ...aa, setsunaku

Nee tatoereba yoru no shinkirou

Tsukamikaketa sode no saki wo dokoka de nakushita

Mikazuki no kimi yo kakushite okure

Dare ni mo mienu you ni

Samidare no koi yo utsuro utsuro ni

Awai yume wo todokete

Hisame sugite ikuyo machitsuzuketa

Rindou-iro to kogetsu sono te ni kuchizuke wo

Mikazuki no kimi yo kakureta mama de

Itsuka koikogareta

Itoshisa yo kimi yo utsuro utsuro ni

Awai yume demo

Mikazuki no kimi yo kakushite okure

Dare ni mo mienu you ni

Kono sora ga itsuka ochite shimaeba

Sono kokoro wo dakeru no?

(Mikazuki hime - 96Neko version)

I personally don't think that I'm a good singer, but Kagen always told me that my unusually deep voice sounded fantastic. When I finally dared to look at Angeal he seemed surprised.

"One would never expect you to be so good. You should sing more often you know."

"Thanks, I guess." And after that we spend another 2 hours signing before finally deciding to go look around the mall instead.

We ended up going to the cinema since we didn't really know what else to do. Unlike Shade with whom I watched the comedy we chose to see some adventure movie. It was actually pretty good until the main hero's romantic part came.

"Jeez, can't they make just one movie without scenes like these? Angeal, pass me the popcorn I can't watch this anymore." I groaned and put a handful of popcorn into my mouth while trying not to pay attention to the movie until the dreaded scene ended. The movie was great, but this was just too much.

"You're telling me and I thought that girls liked these types of movies."

"Apparently I'm not those girls." When it finally ended, we simply watched until the end and decided that it was late enough for us to slowly head back.

"Angeal?"

"Hmm?"

"What did you mean when you said different yet still the same?" He froze at this like he wasn't expecting me to hear that.

"It's nothing you should worry about." I wanted to ask him so badly about a lot of things, but since I promised not to ask anything until he decided to tell me by himself there was nothing I could possibly do. We stayed completely silent until we got into the elevator.

"Thank you for today Arwen, it's been a while since I had some real fun."

"I'm glad to hear that and you're welcome. You can do that on your own too, but it's not as good as when you go with someone. Anyway, tomorrow you are coming with us on our first mission, right? I should probably try to get some sleep. Goodnight Angeal."

"Goodnight Niel." I then exited the elevator and entered my apartment when it suddenly hit me. 'How does he know my nickname?' I dissmised it as simply Shade being Shade. I was pretty sure that by now everyone knew my nickname. I took a quick shower and after changing into some comfortable pyjamas fell asleep on my bed. We chatted happily in our dreams as ussualy and the morning came sooner than I expected. I simply got up and prepared myself for the day. We were supposed to meet in the training room in the morning before the mission to get some details from Angeal.

It turned out that we were going to kill some monsters in sector 4, 5 and 7 because there has been increased monster activity recently. I didn't believe it even for a second since I was pretty sure that we were just going to clean the mess that Science department once again caused. Well, it wasn't like we have a choice anyway. We split into 3 teams of 7 people in each. My team was supposed to go to sector 5 where I was hoping to at least see the young green eyed cetra.

One hour later we almost reached our destination where were the monster supposed to be hiding. Much to my disappointment I didn't get to see Aerith, but on the other hand it wasn't like I would be able to talk to her anyway since I was on the mission. Maybe when I will have some free time.

I sighed and looked back at my teammates who were few feet ahead of me. They were just little kids from 15 to 17 years and it saddened me to think that Shinra would send them to their deaths to some pointless war that just wasn't worth it. I knew that it wasn't just because of the reactor. No Shinra simply wanted to have control over everything. If someone got in their way like Wutai then they will try to get rid of them. This was another thing I wanted to change to matter what. SOLDIER by itself would be a very useful and important organisation in the future if they weren't bound to Shinra and if I don't manage to mess up everything SOLDIER would remain while Shinra would simply fall.

"Um... Arwen?" I looked up and saw John trying to get my attention.

"Yeah?"

"We're waiting for you, but it seemed like you spaced out so I..." Oh right. We're here.

"Sorry there's just so many things on my mind recently but I won't let myself be distracted by this on mission again. Shall we go then?" Our group then entered some abandoned warehouse. We stayed close to each other and had our guards up in case something decided to come at us. After ten minutes of nothing happening everyone started to relax but me.

"I think that whatever we were supposed to kill isn't there anymore. Let's head back." A boy next to John said whose name I don't remember.

'Yeah right. It's more like there's something waiting for us to catch us off guard.'

We were almost at the exit when suddenly I felt the hairs on my neck stand. I resisted the urge to shiver at the sensation of when someone is watching you with murderous intent and pretended to not notice anything. The others seemed obvious to this so it was up to me to look out for any danger. I just knew that whatever it was had to be dangerous.

Five seconds later the ugly thing finally decided to show its face and before I could react leaped at one of my teammates pinning him effectively to the ground while trying to rip his head off. Now that I got a good look at the monster I could actually tell that my theory about the escaped experiments from science department were true since whatever that thing was having to be some sort of a mutated lizard that I have never seen before in any final fantasy 7 game. Back to the issue at hand I quickly grabbed my sword and sliced that thing into pieces before anyone got over their shock at the sudden assault.

"Don't just stand there and grab your weapons! There has to be more of them!" That snapped them out of their shocked trances and without thinking twice just did as I told them and as if on cue more of the lizard things appeared. They had black scales covering their bodies and even though they weren't very big they still proved to be a challenge because of the Mako that probably caused their mutation in the first place. Oh, how I just loved Hojo right now and his twisted way of playing with everyone's lives.

It seemed like after almost an hour all of the monsters were finally dead and we actually relaxed in relief. In my case it was mostly because no one died or got seriously injured. And then the next thing happened in a flash.

I turned just in time to see another monster which mind telling you was huge lunge at unsuspecting John with an intention to snap his neck and without really thinking about what I was doing shoved him out of the way.

I was pretty sure that if I wasn't used to pain from Damien's training I might have screamed at the top of my lungs and passed out from the pain. The dragon only tightened his grip on me and I hissed at it before punching it in the forehead. I was met with a satisfying crack and the dragon instantly let me go and howled over in pain. Guess it wasn't expecting its lunch to demolish its skull.

I then readied my sword and attacked the distracted dragon while ignoring the pain the best I could. I don't know what happened next, but something in me snapped and when I finally started to register everything around me again, I was covered in blood probably mine and the dragon's which reminded me to look at the now dead monster.

Almost the whole floor was covered in blood and the body of what used to be a dragon was nothing more than a few barely recognizable pieces. It never happens often for me to snap like that, but Damien once dubbed it like my Berserker persona.

I suddenly remembered everything and how I chopped the thing into pieces while the others just stood there far out of my way. The pain was still there, but the Mako in my body already started to heal my wounds and it was tolerable enough for me to walk normally without wincing or limping. I just looked at the rest of my group and said that we were going to head back since we were done. I only received nods in return. They weren't afraid of me as I realized. Just a little bit unsure of what to say to me a little brutal way of killing the dragon. I never minded the blood or what I killed as long as it deserved its death. Monsters from logically attacking me or anyone else and humans that were just fucked up in their heads and went on killing sprees just out of boredom or simply for fun. The case in Wutai was to protect an innocent person even if it was confusing as to why would they try to kill someone non-Shinra related.

When we got back it turned out that we were the last ones to show up. I received a lot of wide eyed stares at the blood on almost every piece of my clothes and it was a miracle that nothing got onto my face or skin. I will have to take a shower later when I get a chance.

Then Angeal, who was with the group in sector seven which was also supposed to be the worst 'Yeah worst my ass' congratulated us for not only all of us succeeded but nobody died. He then told the leaders in each group to write a report and give it to him before 8PM and dismissed us for the rest of the day.

I was just about to take a shower and look over my injuries when I heard a knock on the door. I was confused since Shade was supposed to be doing paperwork at this time of the day and her boss as she once put it was a slave driver.

Much to my surprise or maybe not at all it was Angeal. I was just about to ask him what he needed, but he beat me to it.

"What happened?" Crap. I should have realised that he could come to see me because of the state I returned in and I really wasn't in the mood to talk right now about that anyway.

"It's just a scratch, nothing serious." I always denied that something hurt me badly since people tended to get guilty because they couldn't do anything to prevent it from happening. My uncle for example, once shot me in the chest. It hurt a lot but I managed to heal it and persuade him that it wasn't his fault and that I should have been faster. Still, he was more careful with my training since then. Angeal touched my shoulder and squeezed the spot where the longest canine pierced through making me wince and barely suppressing the urge to hiss.

"I highly doubt that a simple scratch would hurt like that. Let me take a look." He sounded serious and... worried? Okay, I know that cares for people a lot, but he almost never shows it so openly. By the look on his face I just knew that there was no way of changing his mind and with a sigh I let him in and closed the door. I told him to wait and sit on the couch while I took showers (and wrap the bandages around my chest again).

Now that I had some privacy I decided to finally take a look at my still bleeding wound. As I got a good look in the mirror, I noted with relief that it wasn't so bad and shouldn't leave any scars. I casted a simple cure to stop the bleeding.

After the shower and changing into some clean clothes I sat on the couch next to Angeal and waited in hope that he would let it go. It's not like it's not going to heal anyway.

"How bad is it?" I sighed and took off my shirt. I was used to this because Damien did this often to me when I got hurt either from training or an accident.

He raised an eyebrow at the bandages, but didn't say anything and instead started to look over my injuries that were almost gone leaving only bruises behind. He frowned "What exactly caused you to get hurt like this?" I couldn't lie, since he will get the report later today.

"Just got bitten by a monster when I tried to help someone. It wasn't even that bad and will be definitely gone in a few hours. Don't worry about it." He was still looking at me suspiciously, but much to my relief only went back to inspect the rest of my wounds on my back which were a little worse.

After 5 minutes he stopped and I made us some herbal tea. I then told him my version of the mission with small changes here and there. He then excused himself and returned to his office to finish some paperwork. However, before he left he hugged me (I don't even want to know when he started to be so cuddly with me) and told me to be more careful next time.

Since I had for the rest of the day nothing else to do, I decided to pay Shade a visit. I haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon and since I was talking with Angeal for about an hour she should already be home. And I was right when I was suddenly almost tackled by no other then her when I was just about ten meters from her apartment. She quickly opened the door and almost literally showed me in.

"How is my best friend doing?" I sweatdropped at the overly cheerful grin. How can she be so happy all the time?

"Just need someone to talk to about 'that'." Her grin disappeared like it was never there in the first place.

"Do you have any kind of plan?"

"Well, I do, but it will take some time to look through it for some mistakes. Even if I know what is going to happen, it doesn't mean that I can change it for sure." I was actually considering doing something about Jenova once I will know where she-it is. Genesis... Well, that will be interesting adding the fact that I haven't seen him since I got there, but I kind of expected that since the war won't end till 5 years later unless of course I would be able to do something about it. Which was very unlikely unless I would be promoted to 1st class. I really doubt anyone can get promoted in one month anyway. There was also Deepground and Hojo but I haven't gotten there yet.

"Say have you heard about Deepground?" She paused and started to think for a while before replying.

"Nope, but I can try to look if you want me to."

"That would be really helpful. Thanks Shade. And before I forget have you heard something about Hojo recently?" She started to think again.

"Actually, yeah I have. I heard from the others in the science department that he's started working on something about two weeks ago. Why?" Two weeks ago? 'That was...' I felt all the colors drain from my face.

"I..." Shade was looking at me curiously, but didn't say anything. "... Hojo, he's... I just don't know how to explain it." She frowned at that.

"He's interested in you isn't he?" Well, she sure is a lifesaver when she wants to be.

"Yeah, he told me something about being perfect for-I don't really know and I'm not sure if I want to know at all but he had this creepy smirk on his face on my last visit and he seemed happy when he looked at my blood work like some kid during Christmas!" I was probably overdoing it now, but hey, that creep scares even Sephiroth no matter how many times he tries to hide it.

"What a pity..." Shade mumbled to herself. I raised an eyebrow at the sudden pause since she always blurts everything out at once. There was a long unnerving pause.

"Um... Shade?" She now had a dark look on her face and it was making me nervous.

"Do you think Shinra would mind being one scientist-less?" Her tone held venom and coldness to it. Note to self - Angry Shade is a scary Shade. I was a little afraid but if I was any other person I would have probably fainted already.

"I know what you're thinking, but this is Hojo we're talking about here. There is no way they would let something like this go." Much to my relief she started to calm down a little, but she still looked overly serious for her usual cheerful and happy-go-lucky attribute. And a Turk that was more loyal to friends than the company she was working for was something I should never be more glad for. In my opinion, it's really a shame that I haven't heard of her in the game.

"Well, I'm sure there would be plenty of time to think about it later when we will get rid of our main priority." Said main priority had two parts. First, we will have to find a cure for degradation for Genesis (it is said that Angeal didn't suffer it like Genesis, but the merging with his copies probably transferred it to him and killed him after Zack defeated him). And the second part was destroying Jenova so Sephiroth wouldn't go on a killing spree. Simple, right? Absolutely not.

We spend the rest of the day (with some breaks) planing and talking.

"We will then-Shade I think it's pretty late now. We should go to sleep and planing can wait, we got a few more years anyway." Shade was yawning and I wasn't that much better.

"I agree. Maybe we should make a schedule for our planning meetings as well with the exception when one of us would be on mission of course." She got a good point.

"How about tomorrow? As far as I know they aren't going to send us anywhere for another week."

"Good idea but we will only talk to 9PM at max. You even with mako still need some sleep. I'm sure the mission tire you. Oh well. Night Niel." After that I headed to my own bed with nothing on my mind.

I have found out long ago that my life is... interesting. One moment I'm just about to fall asleep and the next I'm standing in front of my door and looking at a dark purple box. Who would give me something like that so early in the morning? I dismissed it and simply decided to look inside. Training was supposed to start in two hours so I had enough time. I sat on the couch in the living room with the box on the table right before me. I took one deep breath and opened it... and stared.

I know that I wanted to take care of things as soon as possible, but this was going a little faster than I expected. There was a note again like when I received my 3rd class uniforms.

'SOLDIER 2nd class Arweniel Farrion we-' Wait wait wait wait wait. Are they for real? I mean, come on! I'm here purely for two weeks and they are already promoting me to a 2nd? I'm actually glad for that, however that would also mean less of free time for me and I really need to plan with Shade-No. I have to focus. I sighed and read the rest of the note. Or at least tried to.

'-we would like to-' KNOCK KNOCK Really? What is a person supposed to do to be able to read a simple stupid note without interruptions?! I wasn't even surprised when a red haired Turk with yellow eyes entered without permission and slammed the door shut.

"Good morning Arwen!" I only stared at her with cold eyes which made her shiver. She then continued nervously. "I guess that you already know that-" She pointed at the piece of paper in my hand. "-you are going to be busy today and that's why I decided to visit you early!" Was it just me or were there rainbows shining around her?

"... okay?" What did she mean by busy? I quickly scanned the paper and then my eyes stayed glued to two words. Science department. Why are they expecting me? My eyes then widened and I facepalmed at my own stupidity. 'When you reach 2nd or 1st class you have to go to the science department, of course...'

"Arwen? You okay?"

"Absolutely not."

"I see... anyway! I came here because you won't be back until that creep will let you go so I decided to-" She was holding a notepad and a pen. 'Where did she get them?' I sweatdropped. "-come here and create the schedule now!" At least she's a good reason to annoy me in the morning but alas Shade will be forever Shade.

"Fine by me, but we will have to do it quickly since that creep is expecting me in an hour."

"Let's start then!" And with that, we spent 20 minutes creating and planning a schedule according to our training, paperwork, missions and other stuff. She then helped me with breakfast and walked with me to the elevator.

"Well, I will see you later! Gotta take the stairs because boss has been complaining about me getting lazy." That was the last thing she said before the elevator door closed.

Two floors later, the elevator stopped and when the door opened I barely resisted the strong urge to bang my head to the wall. 'Is there ever going to be a day when we just don't run into each other by a coincidence?'

'No...' I nearly jumped at the sudden feminine voice before realising that it belonged to the person who is responsible for this mess in the first place.

We muttered 'Good morning' to each other, but otherwise stayed silent before I felt him look at me. From the corner of my vision I could tell that he was studying my face and... hair? Was there something wrong with it? I ignored it the best I could, but he still kept staring and after a while frowned. I turned to directly look at him with curious expressions.

"What happened to your hair?" I visibly flinched at the question.

'How does he know that something happened?' I narrowed my eyes at him.

"How do you know that?" I didn't mean to sound so harsh, but this was starting to unnerve me. It's almost like he knows everything about me yet I'm sure I've never met him before.

Luckily for him the elevator decided to arrive on the floor of science department at the same time and without looking back at him I simply headed to Hojo's lab.

When Hojo saw me he simply yelled at me for being late (5 seconds late...) and much like before knocked me out with Gaia knows what type of substance. Little did I know that this would be so complicated.


	5. Looking for answers

**Chapter 5 - Looking for answers**

I stared blankly at the scene before me.

There were two figures.

One was a beautiful blonde haired woman in gold and white armor glaring at the person not so far before her.

The other had blue skin, silver hair and glowing red eyes, her glare just as intense.

'How did I get into this mess again?' I asked myself for the hundredth time since I 'woke up' here. There was nothing to look at really. Everything around me was black with some sort of invisible floor and the only thing visible besides the other occupants in this place was the green light of the Lifestream.

Just like I said. Nothing to look at.

I was snapped back to the reality by Minerva's angry hiss at the alien woman.

"What do you want here Jenova?" The Calamity only cocked her head to the side and smirked. It was cold and cruel, just like herself.

"Can't I just pay a visit to an old friend? You hurt me Minerva." Jenova then turned to look at me and her smirk only widened. "And who might this be?"

"That is none of your business." Minerva snapped, but still managed to look calm. Jenova looked insulted and almost sad.

"That's a pity. I always wanted a daughter you know." I shivered at that. 'This is not good. This is not good at all.' Instead of panicking, I grabbed Habakiri (I have no idea why is she here) and narrowed my eyes at Jenova. "As if I would ever call mother someone like you!"

"We will see." And after that Jenova was gone. I turned to Minerva, who had an uneasy look on her face. Then she looked at me seriously.

"I'm afraid that you will have to destroy the Calamity first." I only nodded.

'What was that?' My heart was racing and I was almost sure that there was ringing in my ears. Just before Jenova disappeared I felt something freezing run through my body.

I blinked and shook my head. Minerva was right if I don't do something soon there will be definitely some problems later.

"Now..." I slowly started making Minerva look at me once again.

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Three seco-

"WHY DID YOU DRAG ME INTO THIS MESS YOU CALL SAVING THE WORLD?!" I didn't really mean to sound so angry but this was starting to get to me. Slowly. Painfully slowly.

Minerva only made a rather funny face while replying. "Because I have nothing better to do and you're the most entertaining human on Earth I could think of."

"... you're not actually serious are you?"

"Unfortunately for you I am. And it's a good opportunity to save Gaia at the same time since I believe you can do it." She gave me thumb ups and started to walk away from me while muttering. "Come."

Honestly, I expected the Lifestream to be just a blank space, but as I looked around while following Minerva I slowly but surely started to see a small glimpse of lights in the distance.

As we got closer I couldn't believe what I was seeing and my jaw dropped.

'Since where do they have a castle in the Lifestream?!' Minerva seemed to be amused by my reaction and smirked.

"I hope you weren't expecting me to just wander around in the Lifestream all the time." Okay she had a good point.

The inside of the castle was... blank. As one might expect there were a lot of decorations, luxury furniture, rich red carpets and crystal fountains, but no matter how beautiful it was the atmosphere made me feel sad and for a moment I wondered if it is possible for Minerva to get lonely sometimes. I shook my head and Minerva led me to a staircase leading down with no end in sight.

"Don't worry, we're almost there." She said almost as if she knew what I was thinking.

The way down felt like it took forever, but after 15 minutes we finally reached the end of the stairs. Before us now stood a huge wooden door with silver crest of a lion on it and torches that burned with golden fire on each side. Minerva looked at me like she expected me to do something. Then I noticed that the eye of the lion was missing. The hole was about as big as materia and then it hit me. I didn't know why, but I just knew that I had to reach into my right pocket and sure enough, I found my Knights of round summon materia. With just a little to no hesitation, I pulled the materia into the place where it should belong.

Nothing was happening for a few seconds, which confused me, but just as I was about to take it back it started to glow. Soon the light was too bright for me and I had to close my eyes. Then it absurdly stopped and I finally got to see what was behind the doors. My jaw dropped for the second time that day.

'That's... But, how?'

"You know what that is right?" My face now looked like this ._.

"You've got a twisted sense of humor Minerva."

"I'm glad to know that and please hurry, you're going to wake up soon. And before I forget, take this." She handed me some sort of black reading glasses. I knew from the moment I touched them that they weren't normal. There was some sort of energy flowing through them even if it was only faint. "As you have already guessed these glasses aren't normal. Since everything here is written in an ancient tongue you wouldn't be able to understand anything. That's why I gave you these. They will translate everything you look at in this library to English. Good luck then."

I sighed and looked at the big library. Bookshelves were the only thing I could see as far as my enhanced vision could allow me. Now to find that-wait. Where am I supposed to look? Damn you Minerva!

I sighed. "This is going to take a while..." And it did. When Minerva said I was going to wake up soon I thought it would mean 2 or 3 hours. As I found out, however the word 'soon' had a complete different meaning to her.

When I was searching through my 50th shelf after 5 hours someone tapped me on my right shoulder and it took me more self control than I knew I had to not scream bloody murder. I instantly knew who it was.

"Having fun trying to give me a heart attack?" I swear that she was enjoying every single minute of my suffering.

Minerva smiled mysteriously. "I wasn't even trying and I'm here because I forgot to tell you something."

"Yeah?"

"Well... the thing you're looking for is over there." She pointed at the farthest shelf on my left with only blue books in it.

After staring at it for about 20 seconds I asked slowly. "You're kidding, right?" She didn't seem like she was which only served to piss me off more.

'Okay, take a deep breath...' It actually worked and after I felt calm enough turned back to Minerva.

"One more thing. How long does 'soon' mean?" She only smirked at that.

"Oh, that's right. You mortals perceive the time differently. Let me just tell you this. I as the goddess can bring people to the Lifestream when they are dreaming which is your case now. The thing is that these people spend exactly twice as much time here as they are unconscious on Gaia."

As soon as she mentioned it, I realised that she was right. That brought me another question, but before I could open my mouth she simply continued.

"Don't worry about it. You have got about 10 more hours before you would wake up in the real world which means you will be staying here for 20 hours. Do you understand?"

She smiled after I nodded and started to fade again. Just before she was completely gone, she added. "Now you've got more than enough time to find that. Remember, there is no need to rush. This wasn't the last time you see this place. Take your time."

Now completely alone, I walked this time to the right shelf and started my search once again. The covers of every book on that shelf were dark blue with silver title.

Quickly checking the first few pages I sighed in relief.

'Well, let's not waste anymore time.'

 **With Shade**

It was only almost afternoon and the red haired Turk was already whining while doing some paperwork.

Since this morning it has been very lonely for her being the social creature she was. However, loneliness weren't the only thing bothering her at the moment. No matter how much she tried she just couldn't stop to worry for her friend. She wished so damn much to be able to look after her, but since her last visit the good doctor made sure that whatever she steps into the science department floor there would be at least one person to tell her to leave at the request of Hojo.

She almost made a hole in the paper she was signing in her fury at the single name. 'Who does he think he is anyway?! If something happens to Arwen, I will make sure to make him suffer!' She then remembered her friend's words from last night and frowned. 'But Arwen would be angry if I did something stupid...'

"Shadette you've been glaring at those papers for 5 minutes now. They're not going to just disappear. Get back to work." Remembering that she wasn't alone, she apologised and returned to her task.

Without any problem, she was completely finished some time later.

"I'm done..." There was a gasp as soon as she finished the word done making her turn around to see her fellow Turk Samuel gaping at her. She mentally smirked. 'Maybe I should do the actual work more often. Making paper planes out of my paperwork was starting to get old.'

"What's wrong with you today?"

"Nothing, just a little bit tired. well have a good day. Got to go!"

Shade ended up sulking in her room after lunch for a few hours before remembering that she has some 'work' to do. She grinned and took her laptop from under the bed.

Hacking into Shinra database was easy and Shade was almost disappointed. Almost. She was just looking through some of Hojo's files before stopping at one that caught her attention. She just couldn't help but feel that reading that would change a lot of things.

She wasn't even surprised when it demanded a password for access. Hojo's projects were supposed to stay a secret after all.

After 50 or so tries, she started to become frustrated. What could be possibly that important in there?

"For the love of Gaia! How could this be so damn difficult?!" Shade then froze and after 2 full minutes of staring at a wall headdesked. Repeatedly.

When she felt calm enough to continue she wrote a single word in and her screen showed a window with simple 'Access granted'.

'Why didn't I think about this before?' Her mind returned once more to the conversation with Arwen this morning.

 **Flashback**

 _"You know..." Arwen looked at her curiously. "I really want to help you as much as I can but could you tell me again, what is that alien or whatever we're dealing with?" Arwen sighed and continued making breakfast._

 _"The Calamity or Jenova as they call her is a being that crashed into this planet about 2000 years ago. I don't know exactly every detail about it, but Jenova tried to rid this planet of all the life on it."_

 _"So if I got it right then Jenova is something like a parasite that wants to suck all the life out of the planet and then do it again to another?"_

 _"... you could say that. Anyway, she would have succeeded if it wasn't for the Ancients also known as a Cetra. They fought with the Calamity and managed to seal her until Shinra found her again. They mistook her for a Cetra and performed a lot of experiments with her cells and managed to create their best SOLDIERs."_

 _"Does every SOLDIER have Jenova cells?"_

 _"I don't think so. There are only three others that have them, but Hojo injected me with them when I had my first treatment so I'm different from the others. Doesn't mean I don't have to be careful if I get too close to Jenova."_

 _"I think I get it... oh! I forgot to mention it yesterday, but I heard that they are going to make some changes in SOLDIER." Arwen raised an eyebrow at that and waited for Shade to continue. "I don't really know what yet, but they are planing to do it in about a year or two. The science department was ordered to prepare for something."_

 _"Hmm, would you look into the database and get as much details as possible? There's no telling how busy I will be after being promoted so soon."_

 _"Sure thing!"_

 _"Just one last thing." Arwen's eyes were narrowed in a kind of funny way._

 _"Okay!"_

 _"Don't be surprised if the password happened to be JENOVA..." The look Arwen gave her made her almost laugh. Almost._

 **End of flashback**

And that's pretty much how she got the idea in the first place. Arwen clearly wasn't kidding about it.

"Nothing I can do about it now... back to work!"

 **Elsewhere**

At first he thought that it would end with the same result as all the others before. The first reaction was rather violent and looked like a complete waste of time. That was until the next time when he discovered something interesting. This time nothing happened and by the looks of it is now in a perfect condition.

How could this be? He's been trying to achieve this with so many others before, but not even one of them lasted for more than a few days. Perhaps this time he finally found something worth the effort. It's almost a pity that he has to follow that order if he wants to continue. As he looked over the papers once more he thought that maybe it doesn't matter at all. He will be able to finally achieve something he wasn't able to do for more than 10 years if everything will go as planned.

No.

With this he could do even more.

Those before are a complete failure compare to what he is working on. Just a little bit more time and then she would come.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed the movement on his left. He walked to the other room and picked up a box before returning back.

The smirk on his face was insane and cruel. "It is not yet your time to wake up. It's a pity that you have no idea as to how precious you are. Not even a little bit."

After making sure that the figure no longer stirred, he went back to his table to read the rest of the papers. So many things to do yet not enough time for any of it right now. If he will get lucky it would be all finished in a matter of a few years. Sometimes he just wished to have more freedom. Nothing is better than the feeling of great success, but they don't understand it. They never do.

Sipping some of his coffee, he stole a glance at a monitor near the figure showing 9%. Almost done already? Seems like there isn't just one good thing this time. Just how much could this new one withstand? The dose he used wasn't absorbed this quickly by anyone besides them. Not that he was going to complain. The more the better. He looked at the clock and frowned.

"Hmph looks like the time runs faster today." Turning back to the figure for the last time he said. "Looks like you will be spending the rest of your time here today alone. I hope you are not going to be too lonely." The last sentence was dripped with sarcasm and after gathering all the papers from his desk left.

 **With Shade**

Shade was gaping at the screen of her little laptop.

She has seen so many disturbing things in her life, but this was on a completely new level.

After 5 full minutes of staring, she finally got tired of it and shut her mouth again. Well... this was beginning to form into a pretty messy situation. But what wouldn't when it involved that creep?

It actually started pretty normally. Typical things that were done to SOLDIERs and stuff like that. And then... THEN she found this. She wasn't quite sure if she should be shocked or not since anyone could have expected this. Oh well, there's still more to read anyway. She will just deal with it later.

She can only hope that no matter what he's trying to achieve is not actually going to happen.

 **Lifestream - Minerva's castle**

Being a goddess was not an easy task and Minerva knew it the best. Ever since Jenova came into the picture there wasn't a single day when she would get a proper rest let alone a vacation.

Vacation.

How great that word sounded would never be described enough. Well, that's why she called the woman from the other world here to help her after all. Minerva was well aware of what would happen in the future and she didn't like it at all, even if Jenova will be defeated in the end. The planet would simply receive too much damage at that time to do something.

Even if the Calamity is no doubt powerful Minerva trusted that she could handle it. She knew of the future events and from what she witnessed in her fight with the Zolom (Minerva chuckled evilly at that) was a good fighter which was only a bonus.

The woman-Arwen she corrected herself will definitely make this interesting. Minerva at first wanted to choose her uncle, but decided against it for two reasons. First was that he didn't have enough knowledge of this world and second that Minerva just preferred if Gaia's savior would be a fellow woman. Minerva liked her personality and with so much shit going on in both of their lives, it would be great to have someone listening to your complaints about the world. However, that wasn't all.

No.

When this all will be over she will take her to the best 'vacation' ever. Even if she cursed her duties most of the time it had its perks to being a goddess. She had to make sure every soul went to the right place, keep an eye on the planet and its inhabitants and make sure that summons won't start a fight between each other. Ramuh and Ifrit have been bickering a lot lately and even if Odin tried to calm things between them more than once, it still kept getting worse. From what Shiva told her they were arguing over things like 'How will the Calamity die' or 'Which element is the best'. How could someone argue over such trivial things anyway? Besides Ifrit that is.

The castle was awfully quiet. For now at least. There will be plenty of noise later on the dinner with the summons like every week. Only this time they will have a human guest with them and Minerva hoped that for the sake of the mortal woman that they would try to act a little bit more civilised. Namely Ramuh and Ifrit the others were in their own sense sensible enough.

Minerva sighed and looked at her reflection in the mirror of her oversized bedroom. She now wore a simple white robe-like dress with gold marks on it. She almost never gets any free time and it was a great relief wearing something different, even if only for a few hours.

Deciding that everything was as it may be she teleported before the doors of the library to not scare the shit out of Arwen again. 'Even if her expression was completely hilarious.'

Looking around, she walked up to the right shelve. Arwen looked up from her book with a slightly confused expression. Minerva couldn't help but grin at that. "It's time for dinner and I was hoping that you could meet the summons and get to know them better. I'm sure it would help you when you'll fight alongside them in the future."

"I can see your point, but wouldn't it be awkward?"

"Not at all, they are already aware that we will have a guest. Shiva, Odin and Bahamut are actually curious about you."

"Why?" Arwen was looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"Who am I to know? Anyway..." Minerva looked her over and decided that the SOLDIER uniform looked good enough on her. "... I'm sure the others must be waiting already. Let's not keep them waiting any longer." The goddess raised her hands up and with a single motion teleported them to the huge dining room.

There was nothing interesting besides the long wooden table where all the summons (in their human forms) sat.

Minerva gestured to sit next to her. On her other side sat Shiva.

Looking at all of them in the room, Minerva finally spoke. "And now that all of us are here, let's get to the business shall we?"


End file.
